Vandread: The Next Experiment
by The 483
Summary: Some new men are integrated, one with a dark past and future, Can he save himself, or is a fellow member the only one has the power to stop him?
1. Spiral Flare

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Well so here it goes, my disgraceful attempted continuation of the only show I've seen that I felt compelled to do so. I browsed some of the stories that have been posted on and I am unsatisfied. No one captured the character personalities the right way, so I'll take a shot at it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vandread anything, not even a dvd. But all the other stuff not seen or heard of in the show. I will tell you what things at the end of each one.

**#1: Spiral Flare**

The ship bound for Tarrak entered the asteroid belt surrounding the orange plant. The inhabitants of this particular ship were an odd assortment of people to say the least. A tall man with dark brownish-purple hair, partially obscuring his face sat down at the radar station on the right side of the ship, his white coat swept under his legs. He began typing rapidly at the keypad in front of him.

Seated at the system-ops station across form him, was a bald man in Tarrak's oddly flashy military fatigues, his head reflecting the light coming from the viewing port in the ships front.

Further back inside the ship, there were several rather comfortable looking seats of black leather in two rows of five two-seater couches with an isle in-between and to each side. In the front row, situated in the seat on the right side was a small egg shamed device with a large black screen recessed in the front. A tissue box was on the seat next to it, and used tissues were littered all around it.

In the back of the right hand row was a boy with slightly spiky blue hair, being held out of his eyes with a bandana and white linen medical wrap, his arm in a cast, fast asleep. Next to him, head resting on his shoulder was a red head with an odd sleeved vest over a black top. The lightly dozing girl stirred slightly, adjusting herself into a more comfortable position.

A long gray mane of hair was hanging over the back of the pilot's seat. In the seat was a woman in a blush green outfit, a whip tied to a loop in her belt. The communications console flared and a message appeared on it. "You are cleared to land at station 07 in the eastern sector of City 107, proceed when ready." And a landing code scrolled underneath it.

The ship nosed up, the landing extended, and the ship settled lightly into the bay. The ramp wheeled up to the side door as it opened with a pressure-releasing hiss. B.C. steeped out and descended the ramp.

"Ahh, Commander, Good to see you." said a man in a Tarrak military uniform. "I am Corporal Vinn, and I shall be escorting you and your crew to your quarters."

"So you're the one that the Higher ups sent to… Watch us?" Duero remarked, in a clam, level voice.

'Well, for lack of a better word, ye…." He trailed of at that point, backing up a bit. "What?" B.C. inquired.

"I… I… was not-t made aware that… that a real woman would be accompanying you for your task." He said with mingled fear and confusion lining his voice.

"Yes…" B.C. said as the fact the Dita had just emerged from the ship,"… well it was a last minute crew edition, but it will help the men get over the initial shock."

"I… I Guess, we should go, the shuttle is waiting and you are to begin the interview at 9:00 tomorrow morning.

"Wow, this place is nice!" Exclaimed Hibiki, "but there are only 4 rooms." "Yes, because there were only going to be the 4 men and Pyoro originally, so it looks like you wont be bunking with Pyoro alone now." B.C. explained exasperatedly. "WHAT!" Exploded Hibiki, "I'M NOT SHARING A ROOM WIT THAT THING!" "Calm down, no need to yell." Bart said, and Dita looked rather put out at the outburst. " YOU TAKE IT THEN!" he yelled angrily.

"NO!" Yelled Bart, Pyoro, and Dita together.

"The room arrangements are _final!" _B.C. Said dangerously.

"Aww, damn it..." Hibiki said defeated, and marched, head drooped into the room on the far right.

"Well, "I'll see you all in the morning." said Bart, a nervous excitement in his voice, and he walked in the second room from the left.

"And I as well." Remarked Duero, his head buried in a medical book form the colonization era storage room from the '_Nirvana_' and walked into the room between Bart's and Hibiki's. Without another word B.C. entered the room farthest to the left. Dita strode to Hibiki's still open door and stood there, contemplating. Her thoughts were interrupted when Hibiki said impatiently

"Are you going to just stand there all night, or what?" At this, she came in, Pyoro trailing behind shutting the door.

The room was a nice than standard basic hotel room, with a rather disgustingly colored carpet, a doublewide bed, with the same color as the carpet bed spread and curtains that matched. A square table sat in one corner of the room, with a pellet dispenser on top with a holder with bowls on one side and spoons on the other. In front of that was a larger round table dominated with a centerpiece of orange crystal in a twisting column of rising flame It was the Spiral Flare, The simple of the conquest of the Tarrak Empire. For chairs surrounded the table, the back of each emblazoned with the eye of Tarrak. There was also a large bathroom with a shower bathtub combo, a sink filled with soaps and sanitizes, and a toilet with toilet paper dispenser nailed to the wall. An ugly bathmat was in the center of linoleum floor in the same ugly material as the carpet.

Dita was nervous, standing near the door, wondering why Hibiki was mad at her, because, after all, he had invited her to join him on the job.

"I'm going to take A shower." Hibiki announced leaping off of the bed, which he had already claimed the right side of, and marched into the bathroom, not quite slamming the door. The lock clicked and a few seconds later water could be heard running. Dita sat at the round table and just thought about what she could have done to upset him so. Pyoro just sat in a corner, saying something about Pyoro 2, but Dita was to preoccupied to have heard.

10 minutes later, the water stopped, and a few moments later Hibiki came out in his nightclothes.

"Will you shut up with that sniveling about that baby!" Hibiki said to Pyoro angrily. "Because if you don't, I will shut you down until we get back." Pyoro glared at him contemtuously, and floated into the bathroom and shut the door and the lock clicked. "Mr. Alien?" Dita said tentatively.

"What is it?" He shot back, which caused her to flinch.

"I… I'm sorry that I … I am making you mad."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He snapped.

"Well, … wha… what you said…" But Hibiki cut her of.

"I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about that thing in there." He stated, gesturing to the bathroom door. This caught her off guard. "I have some extra bed clothes if you'd like to borrow them, because, you know, you didn't have time to pack." Her eyes lit up at this, and agreed ant once. After persuading Pyoro to let her into the bathroom, she changed and came back out, to find Hibiki had already started to get into the bed. Dita joined him, on the opposite side of the bed. They exchanged good nights, although Hibiki's was rather uncomfortable, and switched off the lights, just as the clock struck 11:00.

The end of the first chapter.

Well it sucks, and I don't know much, but oh well.

So I do own: Corporal Vinn, Station 07, City 107, and the hotel complex.

So, I hope you liked it, and, let me know.

I will be looking for reader's comments, suggestions, and your charters, over the run of my stories. You can reach me at myspace, as death in tight pants.


	2. Electrick Despair

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Well here comes chapter 2 of this little thing. I am not sure where to go with this, and I am open to your ideas, input, and characters too. (Although, if I don't thing the fit, I won't use them.)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Vandread universe.

**#2: Electric Despair**

Hibiki ran through the grassy meadow, past clumps of knee high saw grass, and patches of flowers. Behind him, giving a healthy chase, was a giant wave of a bright wave substance. "Traitor!" a loud eerily hollow voice boomed angrily from out of nowhere. "What the hell are you talking about?" Hibiki yelled back, unable to hide the fear in his voice. But if the voice responded, he did not hear it, for at that moment he lost his footing in a particularly tangled clump of saw grass, and landed face first a foot and a half away. He jumped up, and started again to run, when the red wave over came him. He was knocked to the ground again as it impacted his back, and was up again as it dove beneath him and lifted him up. It entangled his body and bound his arms and leg together so he could not fight. "What the hell are you and what are you going to do?" He said, panic rising as a thick tentacle emerged from the substance swirling around the ground around him. "I…" it boomed angrily," I am the one sent to quell you Betrayal, a send you… back… where you… BELONG!" It boomed, and drove itself into Hibiki's gaping mouth. He struggled in vain as the tentacle forced itself into his mouth. He couldn't breath thought the thing entering his body. His vision blurred. He was floating down, the rising blackness coming to greet him with open arms, through the red wave that obscured his view.

Hibiki awoke with a small jerk, but didn't open his eyes right away. It wasn't until he realized that there actually was something in hid mouth keeping him from breathing properly. He slowly opened his eyes and saw, to his horror, that the red thing that was forcing itself down his throat in what he thought was a dream, was smothering him now.

He flew backwards out of the hotel bed, landed on the floor, and crawled backwards until the wall halted his progress. He sat for a monument, breathing heavily, his mind racing. After a couple of minutes of confused panting, he realized that the red mass that had been Dita's long bright red hair. A faint knock brought his attention to the door across from him. It popped open to reveal Duero, already dressed in his medical smock and drinking a cup of coffee that the hotel had provided in each of the rooms. "Well," he said, slowly looking around, seeing Dita fast asleep in the bed, and Hibiki, slightly pale and sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the room. "This is very interesting." "What the hell do you find so damn interesting?" He snapped back defensively. "Well, for one," Duero said calmly, "Dita is fast asleep in the bed, wearing your bed clothes, and you are huddled against the wall, in mild shock." "Just shut up!" Hibiki yelled, blushing.

"Just shut up!" This must mean that Hibiki was up. Bart sighed. Hibiki was always so hostile, even first thing in the morning. Yet everyone liked him. The doctor, always calm, wasn't very far off, as most of the crew of the 'Nirvana' seemed to take quite a shine to him. Meanwhile, he had always tried to impress his captors… no, they were once his captors, but, at least, for now anyway, they where his friends. He decided to go see what the ruckus was about, instead of dwelling upon these thoughts, opened the door and started through Dueros room. Something sparked his memory, Duero telling him about the men with the long hair, and how only time brought these kinds of changes. Thus he tried to rush things, not understanding what he had meant, at first, and dressing as a woman. This didn't lead to the effect he had hope, and had accidentally set the foundation for a riot. "I just want to be excepted now." He said, quietly to himself as he reached the door and opened it. Those thoughts flew from his head faster than his weapons on the 'Nirvana' dispatched of the enemy forces. What chased them away was the scene that met his eyes when he opened the door. Duero smirking, pleased with the scene, Dita sitting up in the bed, just awaken, bleary-eyed and wearing a pair of Hibiki's pajamas, and Hibiki standing against the wall, bright red patches glowing in his cheeks. It was moments like these that made his lack of interest from the 'Nirvana's' crewmembers, he thought as a smile lit his features.

"What the hell are you both smirking at?" Hibiki shouted, now blushing even deeper as Bart joined them in the room, Dita rubbed her eyes, and Pyoro emerged from the bathroom, his "eyes" a pained reddish color. "What is going on in here?" he said with a hint of amusement in his synthetic voice. "None of your damn business!" Hibiki thundered, blushing even deeper. Just how is I my luck that even a robot, crying over a baby was making fun of me? What did I do to deserve this? He though. But atleast Dita hadn't started in on him, right? No soon had he thought it than she said "Hey, why is my hair all wet?"

B.C. strolled through the open doors connecting her room to Bart's to Duero's to Hibiki's. She entered the final room to an uproar of laughter from Bart and Duero, a confused but happy looking Dita on the bed, and a rather angry/embarrassed Hibiki. "Good Morning, B.C." Dita said stretching and yawning. "Good morning." There would be time to answer questions later in the day. "All of you, get ready, it is now…8:10, and the shuttle and escort will be here soon. We will be going straight to the office building to set up for the interview process. Since it looks like we seem to enjoy being in this room, every meet here between 8:40 and 8:45." Without another word she strolled back to her room and shut the door.

The other 2 men left, with Pyoro following Duero pestering him about a communicator. The door to Duero room closed and an awkward silence followed. After a few minutes of this the silence was broken as Dita said "Mr. Alien?" "What?" he said a little forcefully. "Are you going to use the bathroom, or can I take a shower?" "Go ahead." "Thanks" She said as she strolled into the bathroom and shut the door. After a couple of seconds the water started running. After about a minute, Dita emerged from the bathroom. "What do you…" Hibiki looked up, and immediately his face turned red. Dita was gathering up her clothes, wearing nothing but a hotel towel.

Dita emerged form the bathroom, this time fully clothed with Hibiki's bed clothes neatly folded, and placed them on the bed. The clock on the nightstand showed 8:30.Hibiki Called over "You should probably grab some food before we go." He said in an oddly muffled voice. She turned and headed toward the round table where Hibiki sat, shoveling as many pellets as he could into his mouth without choking. Dita wandered over to the pellet dispenser, and after a bit of coaching from Hibiki managed to fill a bowl with the pellets. There they sat and ate in silence, apart from the noise made from the rapidly consumed pellets rattling, and an occasional disgusted noise, accompanied by face, from Dita.

The adjoining door opened to reveal Bart, B.C., and Duero. They entered and saw that both Dita and Hibiki were sitting at the table, eating. A knock came from the door at exactly 8:45. B.C. went to the door and opened to find Corporal Vinn standing on the other side. Good morning," He said warmly. "Hello." B.C. replied. "Shall we?" "Yes." And they set off, Corporal Vinn still backing away when Dita emerged. They piled into the shuttle and within ten minuets arrived at a large, abandoned looking single story office building. "This was once a military storage building," Corporal Vinn explained, "But when the Military Complex Center was formed in the Central Citadel, This area was abandoned, and left to who ever wanted to live in it. This building was locked down incase a military faction needed to come in for some reason. The higher ups thought it would be perfect for your purposes." "Yes it will work just fine." B.C. stated as they stepped off the shuttle.

"Here is the key to the facility, all of the supplies you will need to clean and use the place have already been put in side. Trash pickup is on Monday morning. Saturday and Sunday are your relaxation days, so that you may enjoy yourselves at the hotel. Laundry pickup every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, so feel free to use it. Just call the hotel service center if you need anything. The shuttle will pick you up at 9:30 every morning excluding Saturday and drop you back at the hotel at 5:00. Your interviews will begin at 10:00 starting tomorrow. Of course all of this is complementary, as you are doing a service to our government, so, have a good time and enjoy the complements of Tarrak. "Thank you, Corporal, I think I have already found one of the men we are going to chose." Remarked B.C. "Really?" He said Curiously, "Well, as the officer in charge of the program, I am looking forward to seeing your final selection." With that he boarded the shuttle as B.C. removed a portable electronic data-pad and entered Corporal Vinn under the title **Selection 1st choice**. The shuttle doors closed then it departed as B.C. put the key in the lock and popped the door open.

It was a dusty mess. Cubical walls were scattered all around, some standing, most lying on the ground. Several chairs, a few desks and tables were up against walls, and the one closest to the door was a big box of cleaning goods, one of paper towels, rags, and gloves, and 4 vacuum cleaners. "Well," said B.C. with an exasperated sigh "At least they provided everything else."

They spent the whole rest of the morning cleaning things, and by noon everything but the floor was spotless. Included with the supplies were enough lunch kits for them all. They were individually wrapped bowls of pellets with a spoon, and a bottle of water, not flashy, but they were better than nothing. The group sat down at a table that they had pulled chairs up to, and sat and ate. "I still don't like this stuff very much." Dita said to a murmur of approval from all of the people at the table. Pyoro was just rocking back and forth on a table across the room. "What's up with that thing?" Hibiki asked to now one in particular. "Electric Despair." Duero said, and after seeing that no one had understood that, he continued. "When the artificial intelligence of a robotic being becomes to heavily stressed, the circuitry of its mind starts to fail. Basically it like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a human, the mind jus shuts down." He finished. After a couple of seconds Hibiki asked, "What does he have to be stressed about?" "The baby" B.C. said coolly. They finished eating in silence, and got back to work. By the time the shuttle showed up, they had completely cleaned the building, and 4 cubicles each with a desk and 4 chairs.

The got back to the hotel, and decided they would all have dinner together at 6:30 in Hibiki's room. So they all just killed some time watching TV, reading, or busing themselves with little tasks around they're rooms. They ate dinner and afterwards, the hooked up the telecom unit to the TV, which then linked to a satellite and to the main COM system in the pirate's asteroid base. The chatted about their accommodations and insisted that Magno come and visit soon, although Hibiki was not very insistent at all. Finally, after ensuring Jura several times that she would be able to put her word in on the final group, they were able to brake of and go to their individual rooms. Dita and Hibiki took turns using the bathroom to change into the pajamas. They exchange goodnights, settled into bed and drifted off to sleep with no idea what the next day would hold, as the clock hit 10:00.


	3. Darkened Horizons

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Again and again I go over my plans for what is going to happen, but I try not to think more than a chapter ahead, because than you spend to much time trying to set up the events necessary to make it happen. It is better to just go with the flow.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Vandread franchise.

**#3: Darkened Horizon**

Hibiki opened his eyes, finding himself entwined with the red hair again. The tentacle emerged from the writhing mass and began to address him. "Your heresy is to be purged." It's booming voice said coldly. The sky over the hills of the plain he was captured in darkened as storm clouds grew and flashes of white light showed the silhouette of a man approaching. "What the hell do you mean by that!" Hibiki spat in terror. The figure on the darkened horizon dropped bellow the illumination of provided by the lightning. The red swirled up around him, blocking out everything else around him. "Our messenger will eradicate you Existence! It roared. Just then the curtain of red in front of him swayed as if caught in the wind, and though it, he saw, to his horror, A black cloaked figure approaching.

Hibiki sat bolt upright in the hotel bed, and promptly fell of with a yelp of surprise. What was it I saw? He thought. It looked like the messenger of death, come to claim him. The thought was pushed from his mind as Dita said groggily, yet still tinged slightly with worry, "Are you alright, Mr. Alien?" A slight blush brought some color back to his pale and sweaty face. It was nice having someone to care enough to see if he was all right, even though having easily went back to sleep. Whoa, where did that thought come from? He thought, with a generic answer of "fine," that he managed to procure as Dita shuffled over, obviously still partially asleep and settled next to him with their backs to the bed. After a few minutes of silence as Hibiki contemplated where that odd though of complacency at Dita's concern had come from, when he felt a weight on hid shoulder. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked down to see her head resting on it, fast asleep. He found that he really didn't want to disrupt her, and although he would never admit it to anyone, because he could scarcely admit it to himself, he felt kind of bad for waking her up the first time. He glanced up at the clock, and was amazed that it was only 1:26 in the morning. He reached behind him and grouped around until he found what he had been looking for. Pulling a pillow off of the bed and carefully placing it behind his head. He decided he would simply enjoy the peace, and besides, it was 1:00 in the morning, who would ever know? He thought as he slipped back into a dream world, where there was nothing but dozens of trays heaped with delicious looking food for him to devour.

Duero glanced over at the clock opposite of the table he was sitting at. He had finished eating and was once again reading. He liked gaining his own experiences rather than just reading about the way other people did things, it was still go to get a basic knowledge of some things down. That, plus when board, it was better to read than just sit. The clock hit 8:00 as he finished the thought, and since no noise was coming from Hibiki's room, he figured they must still be asleep. That was surprising due to how much noise Bart was making in the room over. He was taking a shower and singing in a very loud and horrible voice. He got up, pushed in his chair and waked to Hibiki's door, gently, yet firmly knocking on it as he came in range. He waited for several seconds, and receiving no reply, opened it to investigate. The bed was empty, so he walked over to the bathroom, knocking as well. Pyoro welcomed him and Duero replied with a simple "Good morning." He turned around wondering if they might have gone for an early morning walk, when he saw a tuft of spiky purple-blue hair sticking up from the opposite side of the bed. Walking around, what he saw brought a sly grin to his face. "Well, isn't this something."

"Well isn't this something." Echoed through the room, Hibiki turning, his hand frozen in mid grasp at a plate full of orange chicken. His eyes opened at this waking and gazing up at a grinning Duero, his eyes itching with sleep. "Wha…" he began, noticing a weight on his shoulder. Looking over he saw Dita's head resting in the same spot it was almost 7 hours ago. "What the hell?" He yelled jumping up, moving Dita's head of his shoulder first, as not to snap it around. Duero just smile more broadly and strode out of the room satisfied that they were awake.

Name: Gregory PershamAge: 24

Occupation: Parts Mechanic

"What do you feel qualifies you for this experiment?" Duero was plying questions to his latest interview recipient with a very business like air as he reviewed the data file on his personal data pad. He had been interviewing people in his cubical office since they opened the doors that morning around 10:00. It was now 3:30. Well, I am a people person, and a skilled at repairing damaged just about anything." Mr. Persham replied a bit nervously glancing over at Hibiki's corner. Obviously he had seen quite a few occupants of that area scream and run out of the building, sometimes chased away by Hibiki's … he searched for the right word… "Overzealous" rejection of the applicants, but most often because Dita was in there with them. Mr. Persham shifted nervously as yet another man ran screaming from the building, apparently for no reason. He was probably wondering what was being done in there, and if he would be administered the same apparently horrible thing. "If your wondering," he said coolly, "what is going on in there, a women is helping with their interviewing." "You mean," Pershing said, with curiosity replasing the nervousness in his voice, "that you captured a woman and brought it here?" Duero had troubled keeping the disgust off his face, not knowing whether the part about having "captured", of referring to her and "it" offended him more. "Well that clears that up," Persham continued, his nervousness vanished, replaced by a sickening smile, "when will I be informed if I've been selected?" he asked. "Right now," Duero said, fighting to keep his voice level, "Get out." He said coldly. "Now!" he said a bit more loudly as Persham stared at him inquisitively, but hurried to it after hearing the threat in the last word. Another filed in and the process went on as if nothing had happened.

The waiting room was the part of the building near the door not occupied by the cubicles. All the chairs that were not being used in the makeshift offices were in this area. These were all filled, as was allot of the surrounding space. The rain hammered down outside as lightning flashed in the distance, beyond the backdrop of buildings. Every so often a few of the waiting men filed out after one of the men who had just been "interviewed" in the corner. "Hey, Hibiki, you want to stop chasing all the men out? At this rate we aren't going to bring back any meals… I mean, guests, back to our female friends." Bart yelled across the row at Hibiki's cubical, as half the men in the waiting area ran out the door. Most of the rest followed as Bart added "Our female masters won't be very happy if we don't bring back enough choice meat!" The few that remained looked nervously at each other as Hibiki shouted Shut up, or you'll give us away!" back at him in the same joking voice. "I have orders from the head monster… I mean, Captain," adding extreme emphasis to the word captain, as if trying to make the over hearers forget he had said monster, "orders saying I should select those who seem the tastiest. That's why she had Dita here come along. Good thing no one saw here get the really big guy." "Yeah," Dita yelled, in again the same way as the other 2 were, "he was kinda tough to chew, but soooo good." She said the last part as if relishing the memory "I just had to save some to bring back to the rest of crew. After a short pause, she held a heavily loaded plastic bag, her hand and the bag covered in a red liquid. "Want some?" She called. "Why sure," He replied walking out and digging in the bag and removing something wrapped in newspaper dripping red liquid. "I didn't have a taste for this," He waved the thing, getting the liquid to drip more on the floor, "but it definitely grows on you, and it still warm." He said, as he walked back in to his office, and Dita's hand retracted, at which point the rest off the men ran out of the door including the ones B.C. and Duero were trying to interview. Hibiki stuck his head out of his office and said, while still laughing, "guess we can call it an early day." Everyone was laughing, even B.C. was chuckling. "How did you to coordinate that so well?" She asked, still smiling. There's a little text communicating thing in the pads we got, Bart replied with tears rolling down his face. The door opened and a small group of men filled in. "Ok," B.C. said as she walked over and locked the door, "this is the last group for the day." She motioned the first three to go into her, Bart, and Duero's offices, saying "Clean up whatever mess Dita made out of that last guy." This was immediately loud damn it out of Hibiki, who followed up after realizing what B.C. had meant, "why do I have to clean up the mess she made?" He emphasized the she, and continued in a lower voice, which he made sure carried around the room, "I told him not to get to close." But he stifled the laughter as he walked out into the middle of the aisle covered in what looked like blood and grabbed the box of cleaning stuff of the floor. He strode back in to the office, throwing a quick glance to the men in the waiting area. It looked just like a group of guy not knowing what they were trying to get into. They all looked a good deal frightened, except one, who's face was hidden in a black, hooded cloak.

The shuttle pulled up in front of their hotel at 4:30 and the departed back to their rooms. They ate and had their chat with the Captain that night, B.C. saying that not very many interview were suitable, and the first day provide only 5 possible candidates, none of which came from Hibiki's applicants. Then Bart retold the tale of they joke and all got another good laugh in. They finished, and went to bed, Hibiki receiving a small kiss on the cheek from Dita, which he didn't complain about to much, but left them bothblushing furiously. One overly long day over, and several to come, As the clock read 10:43 they both drifted of to sleep, hoping the next day would provide more productive than their first. Hibiki final thoughts were on the strange thoughts his mind and conjured up very early that morning, thoughts that should never have appeared in the mind of a strong man of Tarrak. He made a mental note to protest a lot more the next time Dita tried to do anything with him, And not presented a heaping plate or two as sacrifice. That eased his mind as it finished shutting down and he fell asleep.


	4. Unyielding Bordom

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

So, I am up to chapter four. The first three chapters I made between the hours of 11:00 PM and 2 in the morning, in 3 consecutive days. This will probably be a 2 day one cause I'm starting at 12:40, cause I was hunting flood on halo 2. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vandread, or halo 2(just a copy of that).

**#4: Unyielding boredom**

Saturday arrived about as slow as a snail frozen to the cement, Hibiki thought, having to sit through three days of unyielding boredom during the interviews. He had used all of his creativity in the stunt they had pulled during that first day of interview. He was also trying to distances himself from Dita, because of the uncomfortable he was having toward her lately, and she spent the days helping B.C. with the interviews. So no he alone ha to chase away all the men he interviewed and found not worthy (which just happened to be all of them). When Saturday finally gets here, I just gonna loaf around the pool all day. He thought as he chased another man out.

A loud, incessant buzzing brought Hibiki back to the real world. He lazily swatted at the clock until it stopped, then rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. But this wasn't to be, as Dita got up and started prodding him, and occasionally saying quietly "Mr. Alien, wake up." "Leave me alone." His muffled voice said as he buried his face deeper in the pillow. "But the commander said we have to be up early today." She replied softly. And as if to illustrate this, B.C. walked in the front door just as she finished the sentence. "Hurry up you two, we'll be leaving in about ten minutes." Hearing the tone in the officers voice Hibiki decided it would be best to rise, but he was going to get them for this.

They all pilled on to the shuttle a short while later, Hibiki mumbling under his breath. He grabbed the seat farthest in the back, and to no surprise to anyone, Dita followed, siting next to him and staring out the window at the buildings in amazement. The shuttle took of, but in the opposite direction of the building they used to interview in. A few minutes later, it slowed, and stopped in front of the spaceport they had originally landed in when the first arrived. "You four stay here, I'll be back in a couple of minutes." B.C. said as she exited the vehicle and the door closed behind her. Dita followed her with her eyes until she disappeared into the building, than began looking around at the people rushing around outside. Duero was having a conversation with Bart about Bart's navigating "skills" of the 'Nirvana', Bart greatly exaggerating the parts he told, trying, and failing, to make himself seem more important, as usual. Dita moved to the opposite side of the shuttle and kept watching the people going about their daily routines, making exited noises every now and then, and wishing she had a camera. Hibiki sat with his eye shut and his feet up, wishing he was back in bed. After quite awhile, the doors of the shuttle opened, and in strode the commander, the captain, and Miss Gasconge, wire at the side of her mouth as always, and smirking in a self satisfied way. The Captain, Speaking to B.C., Continuing a conversation they were having before they entered the shuttle said "I've never seen so many people rushing away from me at the same time, Makes an old gal feel unappreciated, you know?" Her disappointed tone changed as she surveyed the interior of the shuttle. "When are you all going to get finished and come back, it been boring without you stirring up trouble." She said, smiling at them all as the shuttle took of into the city.

Dita was busy digging through a bundle that Miss Gasconge had handed her as she took the seat across from her, and Duero and Bart came back as well, the commander and captain staying up front and chatting lightly. "That's a bunch of stuff some of the girls back home prepared for you." Gasconge explained. "Wow." Dita said happily, pulling the stuff out, and placing it on the bench. "There's a camera from Piaway, Some pictures of Caluha, from Ezra and Rebecca. "Pyoro snatched up the photos and shuffled off. "Some clothes for Dita, numerous threats from Jura if you forgot to let her in on the final selection, and Barrnett mad each of us a box lunch." Gasco finished as Hibiki sat up expectant, and expectedly at the last item. "She thought it might be nice if you all got some real food while you were here."

They all spent the afternoon at the building that functioned as their base of operations, showing Magno and Gasco around, and having lunch, chatting happily all the while, and even Hibiki joined in after he had shoveled his food down. After that they went back to the hotel rooms and did various things tell they left the captain and Gasco as the two of them boarded their ship and headed back to the asteroid base. Again the five of them went back to the hotel and bed, after the first truly enjoyable day since they had come to Tarrak behind them.

Sunday was an uneventful day to say the least, as Hibiki was down on the pool deck once he had finally gotten out of bed around noon. The deck was deserted except for himself, Duero, Bart and Dita. No doubt Dita was the cause for this lack of people, but not one of them seemed to mind very much. B.C. was doing something work related as usual, but made a brief appearance near the end of the day. The next week was as bad as the first, and by the last day, and the last applicant only 52 men made the cut. A boring weekend followed, with much loafing on Hibiki's part, and phase 2 of the operation began. The chosen men returned over the next two days, including and overly shocked Corporal Vinn, for the Medical Check. It moved slowly since Duero was the only one who could do the full check, but the others helped out in the parts not needing a trained medical professional to be present. As usual, Dita was the exemption to this, as the men were still afraid of her, and simply hovered around Hibiki as he performed the part he was assigned. This left 25 men out of the original 52, and were to report back the following Monday. The remainder of the week went to rest and setting up for the final text. 27 silver-gray pods had been brought into the building, and set up in to 5 rows of five, and a single row of 2. They were Vanguard training simulation pods and were to be used to test how they group could follow orders and how they reacted under the stress of combat. The Tarrak military was issuing each of the selected men a Vanguard to supplement the dread squadron deployed by the pirates.

The first two days were spent learning the vanguard's controls, followed by a day of team maneuvers, and finally 2 days of combat simulation. The combat portion went over defensive and offensive maneuvers. Drills were conducted as single and team tactics, whether taking out a single cube type alone, of tackling one of the large "drop ships" as a group assisting the dreads. A few drills were even dedicated to providing cover fire to Vandread Dita as it took down one of the huge organic ships the often encountered. Another was massing coordinated fire on one of the harvest flagships. Dita had played an important part in this endeavor, because there was a real dread pilot on the field, and it helped the men to get used to flying with a woman.

At the end of the last maneuver of the day on Friday, the group was whittled down to 9 men, Corporal Vinn at the top of the list, due to his exceptional performance during the final portion of the process. Hibiki complained about it for one reason or another, but they all knew it was because he had been shown up by the Corporal several times. They 9 men were to be ready and waiting to leave at this facility by 8:00 Monday morning, as they were to be leaving the spaceport at 9:00, heading from there, directly to their new home, the pirates asteroid base, and their ship, the 'Nirvana'. The men where ordered to finish anything that needed finishing, and pack, among other things, a pillow, several spare clothing articles, and any personal mementos the might want as they were flying around space.

Hibiki and the others spent that Saturday just screwing around and having fun. Quite a few calls were mad from Hibiki's room for liver, but none arrived from room service. By Sunday night the had packed everything but what they would need for the next day, which included the little data pads, which they all decided they would be keeping, despite what the government officials said about it. They figured they had earned that much. Hibiki decided that he wasn't going to get anywhere by treating Dita like crap, so he decided to make amends by spending the night just sitting and having a nice, little talk with her before bed.

Monday came, cloudy and moody, sprinkling lightly on the world as they took the shuttle to the building for the last time. They got there early to see if they had left anything worth taking with them back to the 'Nirvana', which there wasn't. The others showed up gradually early, carrying a variety of different shaped duffel bags and suitcases with them, some having very few and others with many. Corporal Vinn was among the first to arrive, and was a bit surprising to see without his uniform on, Short brown hair, an ordinary looking green cloth sweatshirt on, and loose fitting blue jeans. Shortly after a large a group of five, and after that, one in a black cloak, hood over his head, and hefting a large scratched and dented metal box marked with 'explosive contents' sketched on the side, locked with a heavy-duty padlock and a biohazard sign stuck on each end. He set it down with heavy thud on the carpeted floor, then pulled his hood down with one hand that was encased in a jointed gauntlet that seemed to be form fitting and snug. "Had to bring a few things for fun." He explained once he saw everyone's startled looks at he condition and markings of the box. "What kind of fun where you intending to have?" Came a voice from behind him as the final man stepped through the door. "Oh, you know, just the usual, John." He replied happily, "How did you manage the pass that last test? You flew like a brick." "Yeah, but I guess I just didn't land on my ass like some of the rest of those seemed to." John, A large man with a short pointed black beard adorning his chin, and short black hair, though not as short as Vinn's. He had three large duffel bags looped around one arm, shook the black cloaked mans hand with his free one, saying "didn't think you'd make it, with that attitude of yours." "Well I brought my medication." He replied, holding up a white capped orange container containing a single large brown egg shaped container for him to see. "But these suppositories are a real pain in the ass, if you get my drift." He said chuckling, as a few of the other men started laughing as well. "If you don't mind me asking," B.C. interjected, though with in a voice that showed it wasn't really a question "what exactly do you have in there? She finished gesturing to the box. "Just a couple of party favors." The cloaked man said, still chuckling but deciding to elaborate as he caught the look she was giving him. "Here, I'll show you." He said, and to this john called over   
"This is going to take for ever, he's extremely proud of his trinkets." The cloaked man, pretending not to notice, popped the lock open with a key on a small silver chain that seemed to come from inside his sleeve. He opened the large box, with the lid on small hydraulics with springs to keep it open, and revealed an odd assortment of meal and plastic boxes stacked neatly, some clothes and 2 pillows. "First we have this," He held up a box about 3 inches tall, 1 foot wide, and 2 feet across, and completely wrapped in shiny green tape, "my special tool kit." He held up a few other boxes, then placed hem back neatly, and closed the lid, replacing the padlock. "That is all the interesting stuff." "Ok." B.C. said, seeming satisfied, lets head out.

The shuttle pulled to a stop in front of the spaceport and the crew departed. The made through the port until they reached the ship. Climbing up the ramp and into the ship and placed their luggage in the back, where a couple of the new men strapped it down to the deck with restraining ties, then took any empty seats that were left, and strapped themselves in. John and the clocked man were in one, and corporal Vinn had managed to grab a seat to himself, and Dita and Hibiki were sharing a bench, Hibiki's mouth watering as Dita told him all the great things she was going to cook him when the got back. The ship lifted of the bay floor for the first time in a month, and as B.C. sent the code to open the doors to let them out. After a short pause the code was accepted and the doors slowly parted, and they accelerated out of the bay. After clearing the doors, the ship climbed at a steep angle until they broke through Tarrak's atmosphere and were enveloped in blackness, stars twinkling in the distance. The ship dove into the asteroid surrounding Tarrak, as they started the journey back to the pirate base, and the unexpected reception that awaited them.


	5. What's the worst that could happen?

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Hello again, sorry if I focus on some of the things the cloaked dude does and forget to focus on the others. And bear with me on some things, this isn't reality by a landslide, or I would be able to type without touching the keyboard. I also might throw in some halo, ratchet and clank, perfect dark, banjo-kazooie, Etc. Stuff in, cause I just like to. And expect music parts.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread, halo, or any of the other afore mentioned franchises.

**#5: What's the worst that could happen**

The engines sputtered and died as the ship approached the large docking bay in the asteroid's face. The 'Nirvana was docked outside of the bay, because it was far too large to fit inside. People in jetpacks were securing hoses and airtight walkways to spots on the great ship's hull. "Looks like they are starting to load supplies onto the 'Nirvana'." B.C. said to herself as she fired the maneuvering thrusters and glided into the opening in the rock's face. The landing gear deployed and the ship touched down with a resonating thud as the bay doors closed. The passengers moved to the back of the ship and two of the men unclipped the harnesses holding the gear in place. The restraints sunk back into the floor as everyone started hefting up their stuff and stood near the door, waiting nervously to glimpse what lay beyond. B.C. and the four other original crewmates and Pyoro got in front of everyone else as a small click came from the other side of the door. A small green light pulsed to life next to the door and it slid open as B.C. punched in the opening code. She was the first to step onto the ramp now attached seamlessly to the ship's hull. Bart and Duero quickly followed, and then Hibiki, Dita and Pyoro.

A thundering roar of "Welcome back!" echoed around the bay as hundreds of voices shouted the greeting at those on the loading ramp. A sole figure was dashing up the ramp now, a stunned looking girl with light blue hair, and on the green, who had been trying to restrain the person, just stood and watched the Long, shiny blond hair whipping about as she descended on the helpless men. "Oh I've missed you all so much! You brought back some good one's right? If you didn't…" Jura said as see grabbed on to Duero and Bart in the same manner as she had before they had left. She was speaking very fast, and with very few coherent words after a while. Barnette and Meia just stood where Jura had broken free of them shaking their heads. Parfait was a few people back throwing a contemptuous glare at Jura for beating her to say hello to the doctor. The nine men still inside of the ship just cast overly nervous glance out the door. B.C. Motioned for them to come out, and said "Don't worry, most of them aren't so exuberant." They slowly started out, The cloaked man and john taking the lead. "What you think we got ourselves into, Jack?" John muttered to his friend. "Don't know," He replied, shaking his head slightly, "but I'm willing to bet that the suppositories are gonna be the least of my worries." John chuckled as he scanned the room. After the final man had stepped out of the ship, the door shut behind them.

"Let me show you to your quarters." B.C. Said when they had broken free of the docking bay. "No need." A voice came from directly in front of them. "Ah, Captain, nice to see you again." "Likewise, but I'm afraid we won't be staying here long." Magno told her second in command as the group marched down the halls. They walked until the came to an open airlock. They stepped into the translucent corridor from the asteroid base to the 'Nirvana', and continued until they reached the bridge. The captain sat in her command chair with a tired sigh. "You know why the male military gave us those new Vangaurd units, right?" She asked B.C. "I think it might have something to do with Earth." She replied without hesitating. "That is correct. The location of earth has been lost over the years since the colonization era, so basically no one knows where it is. We checked the data from those ships we were able to get information from, but there was no navigational info. From what the military has pieced together, the ships probably have a auto erasure program that deletes anything left of their NAV database when they have eminent threat of defeat." Magno explained. "Our job is to go and hunt down whatever information we can get from our old friends." "But why would the militaries chose to send us when they have thousands of soldiers and ships at their disposal?" B.C. queried. "They said it was due to our high success rate and small amount of casualties in our previous engagements. They have given us numerous provisions and we have basically free reign as long as we don't attack Tarrak or Majale military craft. They also seemed it would help along the integration of our new guests, so we will be leaving as soon as possible. We have designated the left arm of the ship as the new men's quarters, and it should be better than the brig we kept them in last time. Show them to it so they may pick their rooms, and settle in. We leave as soon as the supplies are loaded and all the crewmembers are onboard."

The hallway was dimly lit, 6 room on each side, and ended in a dead end. The men all headed of, going in different doors in the left arm of the ship. Hibiki, Duero, and Bart chose rooms right next to each other and the others just filled in the rest, Jack and John taking the last rooms on each end, opposite each other. The then began the process of unpacking their things. Each room was furnished with the same, a dresser, a bed with a set of sheets, and a nightstand, and in the rooms along the right hand side, a window. By the time the ship stated to depart, the rooms were all stocked and decorated to their inhabitants liking. The ship's engines flared and the ship began moving out of the asteroids and away from the plants of Majale and Tarrak, the black void pressing in and seeming to tell the new men on the ship, that there was no going back.

The intercom on the ship blared a shill tone, and then the captain's voice came over loud and clear. "All crew of the 'Nirvana' listen up. I would like to formally welcome all the new crewmates, you are to report to the bridge in fifteen minutes for assignments. I would also like to welcome back all the returning crewmates. It nice to be back in business, now just because we have the governments approval, does not, mean that we are not pirates. And with our new systems and help of new passengers, we are going to be the best damn pirates we can be!" A loud cheer of approval rang out all around the ship at these last words. The men spent another couple minutes settling in, and then began to head up to the bridge; all mostly grouped together, as if they felt there was safety in numbers. Hibiki and Duero ,the other originals, as they would hence be referred to leading the way, Jack and john lagging slightly behind, gazing around happily, unlike the other 7 who threw nervous glances around. After quite a long hike through the ship, they arrived at the bridge. Hibiki said he was going of to see about getting some real food, Bart was already in the navigation sphere, and Duero headed of to say hello to Parfait, and then to go check out thing in the medical room. The remaining 9, the newcomers, stood in front of the captain's station, waiting for her to address them.

"Welcome aboard." She said casually. "First of, I would like to know all of your names, and do forgive me if I have a bit trouble remembering who is who, old memory ain't what it used to be. Second, You have to work to eat around here, It won't be just lounging around all of the time, athough you will get some time off now and then. You are all somewhat trained in piloting the vanguards, so you will be adding our existing fighters in space combat."

John was the first to introduce himself. "I am John Malcolm, Ex military Lead assault pilot." He said proudly, extending his hand and shaking the captain's hand.

"Couldn't tell from the way you flew during that simulation, Names Jack Spencer, Weapons specialist and ground assault personal, but not military, though." He said, following jacks lead and stating his name and what he did.

"Corporal Alexander Vinn, friends just use Vinn, Storage overseer and infantry solider."

"Steven Crow, head engineer for a mechanical support facility."

"Victor Bronswik, Weapons manufacturing plant supervisor."

"Stan Crink, Parts manufacture second class.

"James Johnson, or JJ, Parts mechanic."

"Tony Gilroy, Technician."

"Eddy Graey, Technician."

The captain contemplated them all, their names displayed on the console in front of her. "You two," she pointed at the technicians, "and you, the engineer, are hereby assigned to engineering, you will be working under our own head engineer, Parfait. You five," she pointed to Jack, Victor, Stan and Steven and Vinn, "will be working in the Redge crew, who take orders for outgoing ordnance on the dreads, maintain the munitions and such. Gasconge will be you supervisor. Finally, you, the big guy, you can be the lead Vanguard pilot, because it will be good to have another fully trained leader out there, and you look like you could handle that kid if you needed to, but don't expect much out of him where manners are concerned." She said with a slight chuckle as she referred to Hibiki. "B.C. has told me that you all got little data pads when you got accepted into this, and I've got a map of the ship if you'd like, might help you get from place to place a bit easier." They all downloaded the map from a little access port in the captain's console. "Now go to the mess hall, get some real food, not those pellet things you call food, and enjoy your first night in your new home. If you have any more questions, just ask around, we don't bite." She finished with a smile.

"What do you think? This brown stuff, or that green stuff?" Jack said, scrutinizing the plates full of odd colored stuff on the moving conveyer.

"I dunno, just try something." John said, as he picked up a plate labeled 326 CAL. "What is this? Food or ammo?"

"That is fish and chips with a side of tartar sauce. Don't you know anything, Ribbit?" A small girl with purple hair spread into pigtails, separated by a small white visor-like hat.

The last sentence said by a backpack-puppet, shaped vaguely like a frog. "Fraid I don't, little miss." He said as jack grabbed a dish at random and the two of them headed for an empty table toward the back of the big room, the little girl following closely behind. They sat at the table, the little girl sitting next to John.

"I'm Paiway, The head nurse on the 'Nirvana'." She said, then the frog puppet continued with "Who are you?"

"I'm John Malcolm, and that is Jack Spencer." He said not sure whether to talk to the puppet or Paiway, so he just said it toward the both of them. He wanted to ask what was up with the puppet thing, but kept quite about it, because he didn't want to chance driving away their first new friend away.

"Why are you to not afraid of us like the others are? Seems pretty suspicious to me." The frog puppet said quickly.

"Yes, we thought your military taught you that women were horrible monsters." Said another women with light blue hair and a black ornament attached to her face and hair.

"Yes, well the military isn't always truthful about everything." Jack said very coldly.

"You can't believe everything they tell yeah, I spent enough years in with them to know that. We just though we'd form our own opinions." John replied hastily at hearing the coldness in his friend's voice. "Names John, and that's Jack."

"My names Meia, and I'm the leader of the dread squadron." She had really changed since the first journey on the 'Nirvana'. She still tended not to rely much on people, but was more social than she had ever been.

"Ahh, so you're the one I'm going to be working with." He said smiling. After seeing the puzzled look now adorning her face, he added, "I'm in command of the Vangaurd units during space combat. I'm a bit rusty, but I'll try not to slow ya down to much."

Meia wanted to protest at the fact that there was going to be another person out trying to take command of the troops, but held her tongue. Secretly she wanted a piece of the happiness that Dita found with Hibiki, and starting an augment on the first meeting wasn't the right way to go. "You been flying long?" She asked, trying to make it sound conversational, but a little hostility still breaking through.

"Yep, went into the military when I hit 6, and stayed with that for 'bout 12 years, then I quit out a year ago to pursue other things. I flew in the first model of the Van Type, Big clunky things back then." He said, reminising. It was cool, First night on board, and he had already met 2 very nice girls.

"I hate the military mostly. Some of the virtues seem nice, but the whole lot aren't worth the uniforms they're wrapped in." Jack said, his voice colder than before.

"Were you in the military?" Meia asked

"No." He replied firmly, "but lets talk about something else." He said sadly, then "What do you call this stuff?" He asked her, his cheerful disposition returned.

They spent the rest of the time in the mess hall chatting happily and swapping stories. They bid each other good night as they separated and headed of to their sleeping quarters. The 2 men opened the door to the hallway to find Hibiki struggling to get rid of Dita so he could go to bed but finally ended up blowing up at her, and slamming the door. She ambled pass the 2 of the still cheery despite Hibiki's outburst.

"Hey, jack, just try to forget about what the military did, here is your chance to get a new start and make a couple of new friends. Just make the best of it, and have some fun." John said to him.

"Yeah, what's the worst that could happen, another Henderson incident." He said, recalling a blown operation John had been on when his squad leader, Jeff Henderson had lost his head in the middle of a battle and simply curled into a fetal ball and was unreachable till they finished the fight.

"Yeah, well if it is, least here there are comfy bed to do it on." John said as he walked yawning into his room, bed neatly made and waiting for him. "See you in the morning."

There you go chapter 5, and I still haven't received a cease and desist. I wan to say thank you to the reviews, the comments with advice help my writing,(I tried to change the structure a bit), and the friend y comments that (insert your own generic response here).

I just want to keep it loose and entertaining. And to comment on strawberryeggs review, It is a small experiment, to see if integration is possible in friendly conditions. Plus a small number is easy to right for, and you can relate better on the ones I expand on.


	6. Doubts

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Wow, I am already at chapter six. Foe me this is an accomplishment. I still got a few ideas left, but any you reading this would like to contribute would be helpful.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.

**#6: Doubts **

"I think it is safe to take your cast off, but only slow, fluid motions for another 2 days. No jerking it around, and your grounded tell then." Duero told Hibiki calmly, as they sat in the infirmary and he inspected Hibiki's injuries.

"What?" Hibiki shouted slamming his hands down on the metal table he was sitting on. But now sooner had his left hand hit the table, when he brought it back up to his chest, clutching it tightly as a lance of excruciating pain shot through it. "I'll see what I can do doc." He said defeated. "You will need to keep you chest wounds bandaged. They aren't heeling very well, id I have a idea it might be an after effect of the strange powers that boy slashed you with." Duero said, to no argument Hibiki.

"Oh, that so sad Mr. Alien!" Dita cried as Hibiki rejoined her out side looking down trodden. "Let me go make you something good to eat." She said grabbing his good arm, and his mood improved at what she said, and he didn't even protest as Dita dragged him of to the kitchens. It was around noon and the ship was a hive of activity. People went about their jobs, and heading to the mess hall when the got a break.

"The crew I got put on ain't to bad. At least I get to handle high explosives as a job. But it isn't like I don't have that back in my room, in fact, I think I used some to hang a poster of the fully automatic Pacer." Jack told John as the sat at a table that was empty, holding heavily loaded plates of food. "How's the day treating you?"

"Spent most of it down in the bay fixing up the Vanguard I got." John answered digging in to his plate. "That's about it." Meia sat in the seat next to John at their table sending a small hi to them both, and then started into a plate she had brought along.

"We are going to go out at 1:30 today to practice with the Vanguards fighting with the dreads." She informed John. "I want you there 15 minutes early to go over some of the maneuvers we'll be performing." Her plan during this practice was to see how he was at commanding his troops on the field, and to see how he took to orders himself.

"I'll be there." He said nicely, "It will be nice to get out there in an actual Vanguard for a change."

"And with they way you flew in the simulation, you'll need all the practice you can get." Jack smirked at John, then said to Meia, "Just make sure he gets back by dinner, he gets a bit cranky if he doesn't get his food." Meia looked strangely at the man, not use to this kind of conversations.

"You'll be going to, all of men are going out to practice, it'll be announced soon." She said as another man approached the table.

"Would it be alright if I joined you?" Vinn said formally.

"Only if you toss that kind of thing out the window, were all friends now, remember?" John replied

"Ok, sorry." Vinn said as he took an empty seat. He had become less jumpy at the women since his multiple encounters with Dita while still on Tarrak.

"Hey," Jack asked Meia, "Who's that girl with the green hair?" He gestured over her shoulder. She turned looking around, their where quite a few people with green hair over in that area at the moment. "The one next to the mouthy blonde."

"Oh." She said, comprehension hitting her, "That's Barnette, one of the dread pilots." Barnette was seated next to Jura, who it looked had managed to pin down a couple of the new men at a table as the started their meal, and was conversing at them, without much room for them to say anything even if they could. Barnette just sat, cleaning a small handgun. "Why don't you go introduce yourself, she looks bord."

" I think I will." He said, standing up and heading over, "I'll be back in a minute." John, Meia, and Vinn watched as he walked over, tapped Barnette on the shoulder with a hand incased in a shiny metal gauntlet. She turned and he started to talk to her.

"Why does he wear those metal things?" Meia asked John.

"It just a kind of thing he does just cause they're special to him, you know?" He said

"Yeah…" She replied, bringing a hand up to touch the ornament she wore on her head, and watching Jack more closely. Whatever he said had caused Jura to stop talking at the men seated around her, and she just goggled at him in surprise as he turned and walked back to the group. Even the men were staring at him.

"What did you say? It must have been something if it caused Jura to stop talking." Meia said, seeing that Jura's face was now turning an angry shade of red. The guys around her decided they had been given an opportunity to get away safely, and took it.

"I just introduced myself, and said that she was welcome to join us if she got tired of hearing Squawky over there talking about herself. But I don't think they liked that very much." At that he cast a big smile over at the fuming blonde, who saw it and seemed to turn even redder with fury.

"Did you here the way he insulted me? And now he's over there gloating about it!" Jura fumed at Barnette, who was used to Jura's reactions on about anything by now.

"Yes, I'll go overt here and have a talk with him about his conduct if you want, so you won't do anything you might regret later in front Meia." She said, trying to comfort the raging girl.

"Good idea, tell me how it turns out, I'm going to go see if I can't find out where those men slid off to." She said, calming down, and walking off looking around. Barnette just sighed to herself, putting her pistol back together and attaching it her belt, putting away the little cleaning brush, and saying to herself, "If she doesn't find a man to have a baby with, it's going to kill me."

"Looks like it worked, here she comes." John said giving his buddy a slap on the shoulder as Barnette plopped herself down in the chair next to Meia.

"Why did you have to say that to Jura?" She asked, more exasperated then angry.

"Well, I didn't think you could hear me, I could barley here my self over it, and if you couldn't here my introduction, then I would have wasted my time. By the way, you heard my comment about your eyes, didn't you?" He explained as the others listened, munching on their lunch.

"No, why?" She asked, caught of guard by this.

"I Said I liked your eyes, they're a very nice shade of purple." He said unashamedly. Barrette was even more unprepared for a complement and just gaped for a moment as her brain tried to start her back up.

"Uh… thanks." She finally managed to get out.

"Don't mention it, I'm a softy for purple, but enough about me. I couldn't help but notice the pistol you got there. A classic model, but a bit unreliable if you don't take really good care of it. I'm a bit of an…Enthusiast of firearms, and I saw that your using a wire brush to clean it." He said, not giving room for her to insert her thought, though she couldn't say anything anyway as she was still recovering from the complement. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a small cylinder of peach colored material mounted on a thin metal pole and held it out for her to take. "Here take this, it works the same way as the wire brush but doesn't scratch up the inside of the barrel and helps smooth out old scratches." He stood, picked up his empty plate and started to walk off saying, "I gotta get back to the work or Gasco will have my head, see you on the field." He dumped his plate off in the used dished bin and left the room. It was two minites before Barnette managed to pull herself together enough to say,

"What just happened?"

"Looks like you just made a new friend." Meia laughed at her bewildered expression.

At 1:15 the door to the dread bay opened up and John strolled in.

"I'm here just like you wanted." He said in a friendly voice, smiling at the Pilot with the light blue hair and odd shoulder pads.

"Good," She said, and wasting no time plowed into covering all the maneuvers she wanted to go over during the practice that day. John listened without interrupting through the whole thing, admiring at times some of the more advanced thing the girl came open. It reminded him of his military days. He liked the service, but after finding out some of the things his superiors did, he dropped out, his morals telling him he wanted no part of being their. He met jack during his time in the military and formed a quick friendship. He was one of the reasons John quit. He was snapped out of reminiscing as the woman in front of him finished up. "…so you move you're your C team to this area and await further instructions." He stood up and almost saluted, but caught himself and slicked his hair back.

"Yes ma'am" He said, and the doors opened reveal Dita and Jura, closely followed by the other men who climbed into their Vanguard and fired them up.

"Where's Hibiki?" Meia asked, surprised to see Dita without him.

"The Doctor said he couldn't fly because of his arm for a couple of days, but he told me to tell you he didn't need to practice because he was to good." Dita answered gloomily.

The dreads burst from the bay to a predetermined place, followed by the slower Vanguards. John patched a COM link to all of the van guard units.

"Listen up, I'm in charge when where out here, and I give the orders. You will do exactly what I tell you, unless the dread leader, the Commander, or the Captain herself says something different." He said to the men. "Anyone who doesn't, or disrespects them when you are under my command, will have to answer to my boot when we get back to base. You read me?" He yelled the last part, and every one gave a healthy yes sir. He the patched a link to Meia. "Ready when you are." Meia was impressed, he not only didn't object to her command, but along with everyone else, obeyed it without question. He saw that she was above him on the chain of command, and respected that.

They practiced for a good 5 hours, the pilots all having learned the maneuvers and were able to perform them pretty good by the time they returned to the ship for dinner, much to the approval of all the pilots. Meia, John, Jack and Vinn all sat at a table together again, and Paiway and her puppet joined them. Halfway thorough the meal, Barnette made her way over because Jura was off trying to find the other men who had eaten quickly and filed out of the hall early to avoid her. "She's acting like Dita, Only chasing 6 instead of one." She said, sitting with a sigh. They sat chatting merrily long after the hall had cleared; drinking tea and just enjoying each other's company. At about ten thirty, the girls said good night and made their way out of the hall and off to bed.

"Well, I had my doubt's at the start, but 2 days on this crate and we already have friends in the female population." Vinn said, sitting back in the chair, putting his feet in the one across from him that had contained Paiway a minute ago. "I guess having a military background and having a healthy distrust in what they say helps you adjust, but I kinda feel sorry for those other guys."

"Yeah," John grunted, "They don't seem like monsters to me, but that blonde one might have been about to turn into something akin to one." Jack just stared darkly into his mug of tea. John noticed this, and added, "come on, just have some fun while were here, who knows what the future holds, your free now, and yeah got me and Vinn to cover your back." He said patting him on the back, as Vinn nodded.

"Yeah, well…" Jack said quietly "You're right, it just catches up with me some times." They headed back though the ship, still having to use they're maps to make it. Everyone else had apparently headed here to avoid the blonde girl, because these doors had locks, and the light saying they were locked was aglow on all the doors except theirs and Hibiki's. They strode into their rooms, wishing each other goodnight, changed, and fell asleep almost as soon as they hit the pillows, exhausted from the practice they went that day, looking forward to another long day with their new friends.

Hibiki strode into the hallway about a half-hour after the others, he had finally decided to make good on his promise to visit Dita's room. It had been filled with stuffed alien toys and decorated with similar pictures as well. He was surprised to find a section of wall dedicated to him, too. They spent awhile just chatting, Hibiki cramming cookies Dita had made for him down his throat. Once the cookies were gone, that just left the 2 of them, and Hibiki got nervous. Dita had started moving closer to him along the bed. The closer she got, the more nervous he got. When she made it next to him, he found his bad arm was slowly rising, coming to rest across her shoulders. Dita jumped a little at the sudden contact, the slight blush in her cheeks burned red and spread across and up her face almost instantly. The jump Dita made sent burning pain through his arm but he didn't notice the pain in his arm. His face, burned so hotly, he thought it must be giving of enough heat to be comparable to one of the stars winking at him out the window. Dita slowly turned her head toward Hibiki's, which were fairly close to begin with. Their eyes met, and Dita closed her eyes and began moving her head closer. Hibiki's brain seemed reconnect with his body at that moment, the signals telling him to break contact and run pounded through the newly opened channel all at once. He jumped off the bed, yanking his arm up and over Dita's head, which sent a searing pain so bad that his eyes watered up as he clutched the injured appendage with a howl of pain and regret that he had pulled away. He made a rushed apology and excuse as he dashed from the room. Dita made a little huff of annoyance and disappointment, changed and crawled into bed. Hibiki stopped reaching his room. He lay down on the bed and thought about what had made his arm move of it's own accord. He'd ask the doctor tomorrow if that was a side effect of the strange power that kid had processed and was able to go to sleep, having convinced himself that was what it was.

Here you go its chapter six, fully finished. I will most likely be focusing on John, Jack, Vinn, Hibiki, Duero, Jura, Barnette, Meia, and Dita over the rest of the series, so bear with me. The other six men willl be mentioned, but not a lot.


	7. Why are you looking at me like that?

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Now I start on chapter seven, this Sunday night as I wait for new episode of family guy. enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread, because I am just that nuts.

**#6: Why are you looking at me like that? **

Hibiki was sitting on the stainless steel table for waiting for the doctor to see him. He was back in the medical room to have a talk about the side effects that he had felt while in Dita's room the night before. "Hello." Duero said as he entered the room. "What can I do for you?"

"Well I wanted to talk about some of the side effects from that attack." Hibiki said quietly.

"Very well, as your doctor, I'm here to help in any way that I can." Duero responded bringing up his analysis of Hibiki's wounds on the data pad he had gotten from Tarrak, it was a very useful piece of equipment.

"Well I went to Dita's room last night after dinner." Hibiki started.

"You visited Dita's room?" The doc said interestedly, his visible eyebrow raised, and Paiway stopped what she was doing on the other side of the room, her notebook instantly in her hand. Hibiki's face flooded with color at this, but continued in a defiant tone.

"Well yeah, I made a promise, and I intended to keep it. Besides, she had cookies. Anyway," He plowed into the account of what had happened during his visit. Piaway was scribbling furiously as he spoke.

"She scooted up right next to me. Then my brain stopped working real well, and my injured arm lifted itself up and put itself around her shoulder. I couldn't move it. Then she turned to me and I ran away as fast as I could. I think the side effects made my arm do it." He finished, His blush receding at the story climax.

"That would be a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon, except for one thing." The doctor said, hand at his chin. Hibiki's face fell at this.

"What do you mean?" He said, a bit of fear in his voice. If it wasn't side effects, what made his arm do that?

"Your arm wasn't damaged by the powers the boy was using, it snapped as he was pressing on you to keep you on the floor." This was followed by a long argument between Hibiki, the doctor and Paiway, who decided she should interject with a "Hibiki's just in love with Dita." The doctor had agreed and Hibiki didn't like it. The argument consisted of Hibiki inventing wild stories to explain it, while the doctor pointed out several logical points from Hibiki's story, until Hibiki finally just stormed out, not willing to accept their explanation.

That was two weeks ago today. Every thing had reached what passed as normal on the ship. The men where completely integrated into the ships crew now, and were no longer afraid of the women just for being women. Hibiki had tried to avoid being alone with Dita since that one night, fearing what might happen if the small part of him that wanted to be with her. That part was like a small tear in the back of his brain that grew the more time he spent with her. He had been successful at this, except during the practice sessions, now being held daily, when he had to combine with her to go over some of the moves. During those times, he had tried to focus on what Meia was telling them, but found it increasingly difficult with the exuberant redhead sitting on his lap. The small voice in the back of his head was constantly saying, "Tell her how you feel." Weakly, but was drown out by the protest the normal parts still occupied. But the voice in the back got stronger and more determined each day. He was afraid it would break through and take over soon. John was excellent at piloting the Vanguard by now, and soon became Meia's second in command. He was smart, Confident, and inspired unquestioning loyalty in his men. She thought he could have asked them to eject from their Vans, and fight hand to hand with an enemy that could annihilate them in the blink of an eye, and they would do it without question or hesitation. A slight uncomfortable feeling rose in the pit of her stomach as she to the seat next to him, which she cast away with a little more difficulty that she thought it would have taken. They had dinned together at lunch and dinner for the past 2 weeks. She would have liked to sit across from John, but as usual, Jack was sitting there, Vinn next to him. They were both assigned to Redge crew with Gascogne. From what she had heard they were the 2 hardest working members under her command. Vinn worked with military precision, occasionally saluting Gasco out of habit in the beginning, but had managed to go three days without doing it so far. Jack was just trilled to do any little thing that was asked of him. He said he just loved being here so much that he'd do just about anything they wanted him to. Duero and Parfait were spending allot of time together lately; it seemed she had forgiven him for letting Jura pounce on him before they left and after they got back. Parfait was still going to make him pay for that embrace with Jura that she failed to get into. It was bad enough he let Jura glom on to him, but embracing her too? He had said he was just comforting her, but Parfait wasn't going to let him smooth talk her. Jura was still going out looking for the six other newcomers after quickly finishing a meal with Barnette. Barnette didn't feel like chasing after her, so usually came over and grabbed the seat next to Meia like she did today. The six men were trying to avoid Jura, but she usual managed to catch one and hang around him till he made it back to his room and locked her out. They responded lots better to the girls who weren't constantly coming after them. The preferred the ones who just cast them a friendly greeting whenever they passed in the corridors, or words of praise when the saw a job they did well. Victor, for instance, had taken an interest in one of the bridge crew. And she seemed to have taken an interest in him. He and Belvedere could be sometimes be seen eating together at breakfast before heading of to their jobs. Bart had recently gotten over his infatuation with the commander, with a healthy push; finding out she was a man placed with the pirates as a spy, but defecting and helping them back to the ship. He was now trying to woo one of his fellow bridge officers, Celtic. After me, she's probably changed the most, Meia thought. Celtic was so uncomfortable with the men when they were first captured, that she had hid herself in a big bear suit, to avoid all contact with them. But she had come out over her shell since then and gone back to wearing her assortment of costumes she collected. Everyone aboard agreed that she looked a lot better outside of that suit. She even gained a few stares from the men aboard, and not because of the attire. This thought brought Meia back to something Pyoro had said when she had tried to blow herself and Ezra's baby Cailua out of the escape pod she had accidentally stumbled into and sent out of the ship. The air had run out, and the Harvest were itching to meet her, and she had thought that a cold, bleak death in the vacuum of space was better than letting the Harvest using her body. She put the baby in the only sealed EVA suit, assured her that the 'Nirvana would find her, and pulled the airlock release, only to find her in the supply ship, then piloted by Barnette. When they got back to the 'Nirvana', she had picked up the crying baby, and it giggled happily in her arms. Pyoro said something about when she smiled; it was the most beautiful face of all. She thanked him, but in all likely hood he was talking about the baby, but she took the complement anyway. It was a first back then, she was miserable the time back then, never letting herself get close to anyone, or vice versa. She hated to admit it, but she felt better now that she had opened up.

"What's a matter, squawky got ya down?" Jack said over at Barnette, who looked down trodden, seated next to Meia.

"Would you stop calling her that, she's my best friend." Barnette shot back with a slight smile.

"Well, I can certainty see why, self absorbed, outwardly fixated, and obsessive." He said back to her with a matching smile. They had become friends as well. Barnette had changed a bit as well. She no longer despised the men as she had when she helped start a riot. Everybody had changed since the first met the men and their ships fused to create their home. But all the changes seemed to be for the better.

"Put it up on the screen, and tell me what I'm looking at." The Captain said to her first mate.

"It is a class 7 cargo ship, call sign 'Forager'. Not a military vessel, as you can see from the painting and lack of heavy offensive weapons." B.C. said from her seat, as the scanners and other bridge members fed info to her station. The bridge was dark except for the glow coming from the crew's stations, and the forward screen. They had powered down as they entered the orbit of a brown moon circling a vivid green planet. They did so the ship they were eyeing wouldn't pick them up on their sensors.

"What do you say we introduce ourselves?" The Captain said as she opened a ship wide COM channel and stated, "we have just spotted a cargo vessel in our area, all dread teams gear up and get ready to head out. The same goes for the Vanguards. Let's get out there and do what we do best!" She finished to a large cheer from the group in the mess haul. It had been along time since they had been in a battle, but even longer sense they made a pirating run.

"Does she always give such moving speeches?" Jack asked Barnette as the rushed of to get ready. She nodded and took of toward the regular dread bay, while he opened the door to the Vanguard launch bay. He jumped in and fired it up along with every other guy. Their Vans had been decorated to the users own tastes, and were the newer model, and resembled Hibiki's, have two eyes, but bulkier and with old fashioned metal weapons. They color differed, Vinn's a white, with green trimmings and yellow eyes, Johns was White with blue trimming and red eyes. Jacks looked the most intimidating by far, jet black, (like most of the stuff he owned) with very dark purple trimmings and blue eyes. They all burst from the bay and joined up at a rally point with the dreads, already there and awaiting orders. Meia patched through a system wide COM and began the briefing.

"The ship well be assaulting is a cargo vessel that has no visible heavy defenses weapons. We are going to cripple it, taking the engines and defenses out. Then the Vanguards will dock inside of the launch bay on the starboard side, and eliminate anyone guarding the bay. The strike time inside will then make their way to the bridge and capture any ranking offices they can, while the dread team will mop up any single ships they launch. Jura, you have A team, you'll take the engines out, Barnette, you have B team, take out the defenses. I've got C team and we'll focus on the single ships. John's in charge of the vanguard team, or team D from now on. Land in the bay, and take out any resistance. The 'Nirvana' will dock as soon as you give the all clear, and additional teams will board and start gathering supplies and getting any data they can from the bridge computers."

The COM link snapped off and they all accelerated around the moon, the Vanguards trailing behind the swift and agile dreads. Hibiki was with Meia's team because he belonged in space, not fighting on foot in the close quarters of the ship.

"Sir, a fleet of single ships are approaching, Your orders?" The man at the screen said to the man in the seat in the center of the bridge.

"Looks like they found us first, give them a warm welcome, all we got, but watch for the special ones, that Vanguard, and the big ship, we need them in one piece." The man said back to his subordinate.

Everything went crazy as soon as they rounded the moon and broke orbit. Heavy gunfire was incoming, as well as severalhoming missiles. The cargo ship had turned it starboard side toward the dreads and opened fire with several anti-air batteries recessed in its hull. Two dozen single ships launched and added their fire to the mix.

"A team, switch to knocking those guns out!" Meia yelled over the COM, as she dodged a few missiles and shot down a single ship. All of the vanguard unhooked their machine guns and started shooting down missiles as the moved toward the launch bay, dodging the gunfire from the 'Forager'. By the time the first Van touched down inside the bay, all but two of the ship's guns were down, and only 5 fighters remained in the air. The bay doors closed behind them, trying to shut out the vanguards. 5 of them didn't make it in.

"Work on taking the engines out, and I call you when I get this door open." John called over the COM to his men. He hollered his side arm, grabbed his combat knife, and grabbed the assault rifle behind the seat, and jumped out of the cockpit and onto the floor. Vinn, Victor, and Jack quickly joined him. All were using the same gear, except Jack who had a large rifle of his own design, and two silver pistols, his cloak's hood covering his face. Each of them had a Med. Kit if needed, but from the looks of the things, it would be an easy job.

"Up two floors is the door controls." Vinn stated, looking up at a glass walled structure. They headed up the ramp and right before they hit the top, a door slid open revealing a fire team of 7 men in light combat armor. Jack had managed to drop 3 men with quick headshots before his fellow even leveled their rifles. He wasn't called a weapons expert just cause he knew how to use weapons, he was fast and deadly. The others of the team drowned in a hail of bullets. They proceeded onto the upper walkway and opened the door to find a technician huddled in the corner. Victor hog tied him and let him be, as Vinn sealed the door. John drained the atmosphere from the bay and opened the door to the bay, calling to the pilots on his hand held radio to enter the bay, the last one entered, and he shut the door behind them. They pilled out and reconnoitered at the door with the blood seeping under it. They moved through it and the ship, taking out any resistance they encountered. There were a lot of armed crewmen for a cargo vessel. After about ten minutes, they made it to the only door to the bridge, which was locked.

"You five, go and make sure that the bay is still clear, and post in the control room." John said to the men who had arrived late, as they reloaded after the last firefight. They ran off back the way they came and disappeared behind a corner.

"Jack, Get a charge on that door, and be ready for anything." Jack moved to the door and dug in his cloak, and withdrew a small remote mine. He set it near the part where the door opened, and they all backed away around a bullet marked section of wall, a body slumped bellow. Jack pressed a small button on his rifle, and the mine detonated with a small bang, leaving a hole about the same size as the mine in its place.

"Is their anything that you didn't include on that thing? Get another charge on the door, but make it a big one." John said.

"No can do, that was my last one, just cover me." Jack said as he moved to the door and slid his gauntleted hands into the hole. They leveled their rifles at the center of the door, and jack pulled at it. With a squeal of stressed metal and straining hydraulics, the door slowly slid open. When it was fully opened, jack dove back out of firing range as the men opened fire, cutting down the man that had been standing their, a sword raised to chop at the hands in the hole of the door.

"I'm out," John called, his ammo all in the pile of flesh and blood heaped on the floor on the other side of the door.

"Me too."

"And me."

"You know what to do." John said, drawing his pistol, as the other two did, discarding their rifles. They Cautiously ducked into the bridge, some metal containersproviding cover tothem from the rest of the bridge. Four men stood back against the far wall, swords drawn.

"Don't shoot unless you have to, take them alive." John whispered to the men next to him as the men with swords spread out. "I'll take the one far right, Vic, you take far left, Vinn, the one next to him, Jack, you get the captain." The all nodded, Vinn picking up the sword the man behind wasn't using any more. He had taken up swordplay during his stay in the military academy, but wasn't able to carry a sword, as it was reserved for officers. Jack snapped his wrist back and the hilt of a sword slid into his hand, and with another wrist snap, and a blade was shining, connected to the hilt. Jack stepped out from behind the cover, and pointed his sword at the captain.

"Let's go." He said as he swung the sword up gently. The captain smiled and advanced. John and the rest crept toward their targets pistols and knives drawn, and Vinn with his sword. The bridge crew jumped forward an attacked, Their swords clanging as they met with the others pistols, knocking them away, but they managed to block the follow up with their knifes. Vinn was trading blows with his opponent lazily, because he wasn't very good, and Vinn just blocked his attacks as if he was bored. Jack was exuberantly battling the captain, moving back and forth, side to side, as if in an elegant dance. They were still battling when the other three had finished, the loser tied up separately in a corner. Everyone was watching attentively, John unscathed, Vinn had a large bloody slash across his chest, from when he dropped his guard, and his opponent scored a target of opportunity. Victor had a few scratches on his face and hands, and was digging in his Med. Kit for some Band-Aids.

"What do you think?" Jack called still fighting. "Should I finish this the boring way, or with flare?"

"Go for flare." They all, including the captain's crewmates, called. Jack switched his sword to the left hand mid strike, reached in his cloak with the right, pulling out a black throwing knife. He spun it a few times in his gauntleted palm, and with a flick of his wrist, flung it into the man's left leg right above his knee. The man was distracted with the little knife buried three inches in his leg, and Jack flattened his sword on top of his opponent's and moved it in a semi-circle with a snap upward at the end. This sliced into the man's fingers holding the sword and the snap sent the sword flying up in a slow arc. Jack circled behind him with a turn, kicking his leg out, so the captain fell to his knees, as John grabbed the hilt of his sword and crossed them both, the blades turned at the mans throat. His three comrades clapped for him and he turned and gave a bow, tossing the captain's sword to them, his own sucked back up into his sleeve. The captain took this time to pull the knife out of his leg, and swiveled around, his arm swinging down at the bowing mans back. Jack pivoted on his left foot, turning around and grabbing the arm with the knife. He let the man's momentum carry him to the floor with a thud. Jack twisted the mans arm behind its owners back, and holding him to the floor. He plucked the knife out of the man's hand and placed it on the floor. He then flipped him over brought both arms forward, and bound his wrists, and ankles. Then he grabbed the back of the mans shirt and with a tug, slid him across the floor to his companions.

"Just out of curiosity, what would the boring way have been?" The captain asked, and, when he saw the looks his mates were giving him said, "Why are you looking at me like that, I wan to know these things."

"I would have grabbed your sword with my left hand, and then stabbed you though the stomach with mine." Jack responded.

"Personally, I'm glad you chose the fancy way." To this the boarders all laughed, John picking up the radio, switched it to Meia's freq. and gave the all clear. They stayed on the bridge, gathered up the swords, and tied them together.

"These will look great mounted on our walls," Victor said, grabbing the bundle. "A souvenir from our first successful mission." A few minutes later B.C., Gascogne, and parfait arrived on the bridge and took over. After they had extracted all the data they could from the computers on the bridge. They loaded the crew into one of their own escape pods, having extracted all the info they could get out of them. Jack put the little knife in the captain's breast pocket, saying that he might need it. He sealed the hatch and sent the pod off as a small voice came from Goscogne's belt.

"The connection is complete and we're starting to take all the supplies on board. Water pumping and we'll get the air as soon as you're clear."

"Think that's are Queue to exit." She said as they waked back to the bay.

The 'Forager' floated dead in space, crippled beyond repair, nothing left inside.

"Hit it, Bart." The Captain said, and was rewarded with an aye and dozens of lines of blue light, streaking toward the ship, dead in space. Everything had been striped from the ship, weapons, ammo, and the pirates had removed even the air. The lead beams struck the ship, and it shuddered as explosions blossomed from its hull. Once all the shots had struck, the sip sat for a minute, battered by the barrage, then ceased to exist as it detonated in a massive fire ball.

"A job well done, by everyone. It's nice to be back in business." The captain said happily.

The mess hall was in a state of celebration over their successful raid, a lively tune coming from the speakers. Everyone was drinking, and eating, and enjoying themselves. Meia, John, Jack, Vinn, Barnette, and even Jura were seated together celebrating. Jura had seen Vinn in the medical room getting his chest wound cleaned and wrapped, happily showing it of to her and recounting his version of what happened. He was glad she had noticed him, because he did think she was kind of pretty, and it couldn't hurt to get to know her, right? Victor was over with Belvedere telling how he had fought of a team of 7 men with guns by himself, and she listened with rapt interest. The 5 men who had showed up late to the bay were telling how they took out the engines while being trapped outside the bay to a group of pilots, all of which were a bit tipsy by then, giggling as the men mimed hacking at engine casings. Hibiki was vigorously eating everything within reach, while Dita watched happily, a pink tinge in her cheeks as she downed another glass of what she was drinking, Misty doing the same, the little blob thing dancing around her shoulder. Bart was off in a corner with Celtic, who was wearing a black and white striped dress and shirt, with a matching round hat perched on her head. Bart just listened to her talk, sipping his steaming drink smiling. The six got up and headed out of the hall, saying hi to the Captain and Commander as they exited the crowded hall. The stopped when they reached the environmental area beneath the bridge. They sat on the beach around a small lake and laid on their backs, staring at the stars through the large dome overhead. The lay there chatting, for a while. They started drifting of to sleep, the stars winking down at them, when one of the girls sat up, the others following.

"What's wrong?" They all asked.

"I'm just gonna go to bed, it's been along day, and i don't want to wake up with sand in my hair." Meia got up and started walking, saying goodnight, as the others got up and did the same, Jura giving Vinn a small kiss on the cheek, which caused him to turn bright red. As soon as the girls were out of sight, John and Jack started in on Vinn.

"Oh, that cut on your chest is sooo manly. Does it hurt bad?" Jack said, mimicking Jura in a girly voice. "Tell me how you got it again? You're so brave." Vinn's face turned even redder at this, and he yelled

"Shut up, you're just being an ass because you're jealous." Vinn said,

"Yeah, there's a lot to be jealous of, First there is your swordplay, and squawky, there's a real treasure." He and and him rolled around laughing.

"just because I'm not some freak who can do fancy sword tricks…" He stopped as he realized what he had just said, Jack and John stopped laughing. Vinn knew what he said was a big mistake

"We can't all be blessed; I just got inline late when god was passing out normalcy." Jack said with a laugh. "Don't worry about it, were friends, I mean, it's not like I'm gonna rip your head off." They left the environmental area, John and Jack right back on Vinn's case, his face as red as ever.

Jack entered his room, and closed the door behind him, locking it. His walls were decorated by a bunch of posters of guns with black backgrounds, all held up by shiny green tape. Even the ceiling was covered in posters, and the carpet on the floor of this room was black to. He took his gauntlets off and put them on the nightstand, on top of the box wrapped in green tape. He sat on the bed and pulled his metal boots off, revealing black socks, and slid them under the bed. He stood up and spread his arms.

"Only a freak could do this." He said quietly to himself with a chuckle. The cloak began to move; it sucked in upon itself, and flattened. When it stopped, it was a pair of black silk bed cloths. He crawled into bed and shut out the light.

There you go, hope you like it. I have read the Halo novles by Eric Nylund and William C. Deitz repeatedly, and their a great read, even if you don't know what Halo is. so i try to write the way they did a bit, because hteir writing style were so good. have fun.


	8. Confessions of the Heart

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Chapter eight, it isn't going to be spectacular, but ill give it my best shot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, because I got no money.

**#8: Confessions of the Heart**

Meia stared out the window of the ship entering the planet's atmosphere. It had been 3 weeks from the attack on the 'Forager'. Christmas was 3 days away, and the captain had given them all a bit of shore leave on the merchant planet Telcon. The planet had thousands of different shops on its single continent. They had conducted several raids on ships over the past weeks, had had captured a large sum of money, which they didn't really need, so they were going to blow as much as they saw fit while here. John was sitting beside her, joking with Jack. Meia had recently gotten an uncomfortable swoop in the pit of her stomach whenever she had locked eyes with him. She dismissed it as nothing and ignored it. Vinn and Jura were in a serious relationship now, which meant that he paid her a lot of attention, and was now going for mouth to mouth kisses on occasion, when they though no one was watching. They were discussing telling everyone about them during the Christmas festivities, but thanks to Paiway, it wasn't a secret. Hibiki was spending more time with Dita, and now even returning a smidgen of affection she was constantly shoveling on him. It seemed everyone was moving forward with the love lives as Christmas approached. Christmas was the time to spread love, but did so many people have to be doing it? Why was everyone around her lucky enough to have found a person to be with? Even though she had sworn against getting attached to anyone, she still couldn't help but feel sad that all of her friends were finding happiness and she was alone. Dita had Hibiki, Parfait had Duero, Jura had Vinn, Belvedere had Victor, and Celtic had Bart. Even Barnette seemed to be moving toward going at Jack. Why was she to be left out?

She swept these bitter thoughts out of her head as the ship touched down.

"We all meet back here in 4 hours, and I can assure you, who ever isn't, won't be envied by anyone alive." Gascogne said, casting a look at Jura, and then the rest. Jura then promptly dragged Vinn off and into the first clothing shop she came to.

"I feel sorry for Vinn when Gasco gets a hold of him for being late." Jack said with a sigh, "She is not a good sport when you're late." He made a cutting gesture across his throat. The group consisting of Meia, John, Jack, and Barnette spent the next 2 hours looking around from store to store for gifts for that special some someone aboard the 'Nirvana'. Everyone had been giving a large sum of money each, because they either had hit a rich person's ship, or a bank ship, because it had had a room filled from floor to ceiling in paper bills. They had all been giving around 10,000 in currency. They went to a jewelry shop and had accomplished their gift list all at once.

"Why do women like colorful stones and shiny metal?" John said, admiring a case filled with blades of varying lengths, all with jewel encrusted hilts.

"Dunno, but that would explain why they are all fighting over me." Jack replied, holding up a large ruby in his gauntlet and examining it. Everyone in the shop had a good laugh at that, and he just shrugged, put the gem back in the barrel with the others, and moved to another. John walked over and examined a case containing a full suit of armor made of gold, and jewels everywhere.

"Hey, Barnette," Jack called over, and she pried her eyes away from a ring with about 20 diamonds set into it in a spiral pattern with the largest in the center. "Come here I need your help." He said, and she hastened over hearing that, excitement coming over her features. "Which of these stones do you think looks best, I just keep wanting to grab purple, purple, purple, because I love the color." He said.

"Why do you like the color so much?" She asked, half hoping for another complement of her eyes. Jack's face got a touch of worry playing across it, and John looked over, also worried. He had hidden it for this long, was he going to blow it now?

"I… uh… I…" Jack stuttered trying to buy time as his mind raced. Something clicked and he said with an ashamed look on his face, finding an excuse, "I think it radiates a calm sense of power that I find appealing." He said in a way that sounded more like a question than a statement. John gave him a small nodded, which Meia noticed, and Jacks smile spread and his confidence came flooding back. "I'm going to fix up a little something for one of the girls back on the ship, and I am just no good at this kind of stuff."

"Oh." Barnette said a bit disappointedly. "The sapphires." She said, pointing at a barrel filled with blue stones.

"Ah, of course, blue, purple's mother, calm and comforting. Mix it with purples father, red, flashy and powerful, and you get the calming strength of purple. Thank you, sorry for interrupting whatever you were doing." He said, turning to the barrel of sapphires and beginning to dig through them. Barnette turned, crestfallen, and went back to staring at the ring. Meia walked over to John.

"What was that all about?" She asked in a whisper.

"Nothing, he was just asking about some rocks." John whispered back.

"Not that, that nod that you gave him when he said the stuff about why he liked the color. It sounded like he was asking you." She stated. Now it was john's turn to cast around of an excuse.

"Er…well… it… uh…" He stuttered, until he came up with a lie that he was sure would work. "Ok, but you have to promise not to tell anyone." He said, putting a defeated look on his face. He had learned to lie convincingly when in the army, it was all acting, and he was good. Meia nodded, and John elaborated. "Jack has had feelings for her for quite some time. He has done something's that he would have never done before. He wanted to get her opinion without her knowing that he was making whatever he is for her. He hasn't told me what it will be, but he always puts his all into whatever he does, so you can bet it will be spectacular, and knowing Jack it will probably explode." He finished with a chuckle. Meia seemed to except this explanation, and went back to looking at some nice gloves with gold embroidery. John was now looking at a case full of necklaces; some with glistening gems the size of his thumb hanging from them. One caught his eye, a plain golden chain with a small teardrop shaped emerald hanging from it. Nothing fancy but still eye catchingly beautiful. It was perfect, it resembled the person he wanted to give it to, for she wasn't the type to like having a big fuss made over her.

"Hey, you with the key," He called to the woman behind the counter. She hobbled over, and John pointed out the one with the small gem. "I'll take that one." He said. They marched over to the counter. "Give me that little silk bag, too."

"Ok, the necklace will be $10,200, and the bag $50. Your grand total will come to $10,260, tax included." John brought his neatly folded bills out of his pocket, counted out the money, and handed it to the clerk, and shoving the rest back in his pocket. She handed him the bag and he put it safely in a pocket on the inside of his vest.

"Who's that for, if you don't mind me asking?" Meia asked curiously.

"One of the dread pilots, a nice level headed girl, think she'll like it." He said happily.

"I'm sure she'll love it." Meia said with a forced smile, keeping the bitterness that had just risen up at hearing this, along with another feeling. What? Why am I feeling jealous? Meia though as she struggled to banish this new and unwelcome feeling, and went back to gazing at little sculptures of military vehicles and craft carved out of different gemstones. She was about to pick one out, and call the lady over when she saw Jack at the register, the lady placing an assortment of gems in a rather large bag.

"Give me one of those gold bars, wait, make that 2, and put them in that box over there." He said pointing at a handsome box that was about 1'X 1', but wasn't as decorated as the other boxes around it.

"Your grand total is $585,995." She said.

"Seems reasonable, but let's just make it an even $586,000." He said pulling out the wad of cash he had got from the ship, and then fishing around in his cloak. He pulled out a much larger wad of cash, and placed it on the counter with the rest. "That was my rainy day fund, but seeing as this is going to be my first Christmas, I can afford to go for a little extra." It took the clerk a full three minutes to count the money in front of her. When she finished, she handed him back about $20,000, and started opening the case holding the gold bars. He stashed the money back in his cloak, along with the sagging bag of gems, and then the box with the gold when she gave him that. Meia decided to ask John about Jack's extensive budget.

"Where did he get all of that money?" She asked him, after purchasing a little figurine.

"I had that stashed away from over the years, was going to open a business if I ever left Tarrak, but I figured, I'm not on Tarrak anymore, so I might as well have some fun." Jack said, hearing Meia, who was embarrassed by having him hear her ask his friend about him. They left the shop after Barnette had broken down and purchased the ring for herself and a little figurine for someone she wasn't going to name. They went and found a restaurant, and nearly exploded as he had something called a bacon cheeseburger. He then loudly declared his love to the food, and spent the next hour savoring every bite. They left the restaurant, than headed back to the ship, and waited with Gascogne, Bart and, Celtic, who was hefting several clothing preservation bags. They tough she had allot, until Vinn dragged Jura into the bay at the last second, Jura holding at least twice as many, Vinn also carrying some that nobody thought were his.

"Damn," Jack said pulling out his wad of cash, "He managed to get back in time, here's that $20 I bet you." He said, throwing some money at John. They all piled into the ship, and Gascogne pushed the ship up and out of the bay, and out of the atmosphere. Vinn had explained how he literally had to pull Jura out of the last shop, and she seemed mad, until Gasco told them all what she would have done if they had been late. Jura seemed happy toward him again, and the rest of the trip went by peacefully. The ship docked with the 'Nirvana', who was floating serenely in the heavens.

"I've got to get going if I'm gonna have my gift ready by the time were supposed to give them, I'll see you all later." He said and rushed off. That was two days ago, and no one had seen him since. But his door was locked, and John says he's in their, so he must be, right? I mean John knows him better than anyone. Barnette though as putt another pan of cake in the oven on Christmas Eve morning. She had been thinking about him allot, but didn't know why. She had been baking for about 3 hours now, and had had quite a bit of time to think. She had strange feelings about him, sort of like how she had felt toward Jura, but better, and stronger. She remembered that her feelings to Jura were feelings of love. "If your feelings of him are the same as the ones you have for Jura, only stronger, that mean's that you are in love with him." A voice strong, calm in the back of her head said. "That is what it meant when your stomach leapt at the sight of him, Your Heart skipping a beat when you locked eyes." It said. She was confused, and not too confident in herself at the moment, covered in batter and hearing voices in her head. She just kept cooking, and the voice kept talking. "It is why you have been thinking about him all of the time, and having trouble sleeping." It went on, when anther voice entered, a desperate voice that was her reasoning. "What makes you so sure, he hasn't even said hello for 2 days, why should I care about a stupid man." Yet another voice spoke up, sad and quiet, her self-confidence joined the argument. "He would never like someone like me, he could have anyone on this ship, and he'd never chose me. More voices joined in, and Barnette couldn't concentrate. All of the voices represented the feelings she had been having and suppressing over the past couple of days. She screamed, bringing her hands up to her ears. The world around started spinning, the voices arguing in her head seemed to grow, and were consuming her.

She woke up in the hospital, a worried looking Duero and Parfait staring down at her as she blinked in the light. She didn't remember anything about how she had got here, only a single voice strong and calm, telling her something important.

"You fears will either be confirmed, or dismissed" She didn't know what it meant, or who had said it.

"Are you ok?" The doctor's voice floated down to her. "Your brainwaves were pretty erratic for a while, but calmed a few seconds before you awoke."

"Yeah," she mumbled half-heartedly "Everything just sort of, caught up with me." She said rubbing her eyes and sitting up. She didn't know why she said that, but somehow knew it was the truth. "How'd I end up here?"

"Dita said she heard a scream, and went into the kitchen and found you on the floor. Hibiki and John carried you up here. That was about 2 hours ago."

"I had better get back to the kitchens." She said, and started to get up. The doctor put a hand on her shoulder.

"No, just lay here and get some rest." She started to protest, but decided not to and slumped down into the bed again. The doctor handed her a pill and a cup of water, which she took, and drifted back into a peaceful sleep.

"Will she be alright?" Parfait asked, with a worried tone.

"Yes, she seemed to just be over whelmed by stress. A few more hours sleep and she should be back to normal." The doctor said, reassuringly.

"Nothings been normal around here for along time." Parfait grinned as she and the doctor left hand in hand, to go and set up the snow machines for later that evening.

"Why are women so weird?" Hibiki asked, helping Dita with her cooking. She simply smiled, and shrugged her shoulders. "Your no exemption. In fact, you're the weirdest one I know." Dita leaned right up to his face, a sly smile spreading across her face an inch and a half away from his.

"Yes, But you know you like it, Mr. Alien." She said slowly and carefully. Hibiki's blushed and turned away with his usual damn it. Not because of her being so close, but because she was right. He didn't bother fighting. The tear in his sensibility had now taken over most of his brain, and it was only a matter time until he couldn't fight it at all. It turned out, that that time was going to be right now. Dita wrapped her arms around his neck, and she pressed herself against him. He decide, well the new part of him decided, that it was a good time to act upon his feelings, feelings that he had fought since they had first left and landed on Tarrak. He turned and wrapped his arms around her waist. She jumped a little when she felt this, and blushed furiously.

"I think your right." He said in a voice so smooth that their cheeks both lit up even more. He leaned his head in and she did as well, closing her eyes. They got closer and closer, only half an inch of air between their two sets of lips.

"Would you to cut that out and Start working?" Jura shouted from the other side of the counter, causing the two to jump up and practically fly apart.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hibiki yelled over at her, both embarrassed and furious that she had ruined their moment. "Your one to talk, always attached to that army guy!"

"Theirs only a few hours left, and everything has to be perfect. Plus without Barnette, you have to work harder." Jura said, ignoring Hibiki's comment, though she was a pink tinge in her cheeks as she walked of to yell at someone else for slacking of. Dita and Hibiki went back to work without a word.

The small tables that were usually in the mess hall, had all taken out, and two giant ones moved in. Bench seats were put on both sides of each table. Tablecloths had been put over the tables, and on top of a huge spread of food, drink, and enough silverware and plates for the entire crew to eat at once. It seemed that the focus of this year's Christmas was to be the dinner. People began coming into the hall at about 10:30 to get the good seats. The feast started at 11:00, and anyone who was not there already, just had to fill in when they showed up.

Barnette woke at 11:45, and having no incentive to got to the feast, headed back to her room to change out of her apron. Still being tired even after her drug induced nap, and not wanting to go to bed, she just grabbed a small box from in one of her drawers, stuffed it in her pocket, and walked to the enviornmental area underneath the bridge. She sat in the cool grass, her back to a tree near the side walk, and watched the stars. At midnight she heard the uproar in the hall, as everyone was wished eachother a Merry Chirstmas to each other. She was half asleep, and didn't notice the crickets stop chirping, like when a threat was near, and the uneven clicking of metal against cement. She snapped awake as someone started talking to her, dark outline blurred, standing on the side walk infront of her.

"There you are, Your not an easy one to track down." It said, ad she recognised it was Jack. She felt the normal swoop in her stomach. "Let's go over into the light, I want to show you something." He said to her, holding out his hand. She took it, expecting the stong, cold grip of the guantlets that he always wore. What she grabbed was as cold as she expected, but was not the unyeilding metal, but bare flesh. He walked with her to a bench bathed in the light provided by a street lamp near by. She sat down, but he remained standing. His face was pale, drained of most of it's color, but he was smiling widely. She looked at his hand as he released hers, and saw that it was covered in dry blood.

"I've just finished my gifts for the person you helped me pick the stone out for. Been working on it non stop for three days, it had to be perfect, I even took my gauntles off so I wouldn't scratch it." He said as he dug both hands into his coat, and bringing out a box. It covered in a layer of gold, fancy patterns on the edges and corners. A large amethyst dominated the center and then gems were set in a spiraling patern, four stones in an arm, eight arms, two of each color stone, the stones getting smaller the furter out they went. Diamonds lined the sides and front of the box, in a neat row, equal space between them. It was one of the most beautful things Barnette had ever seen, and see could honestly say she envyed whoever was to recive it.

"It's wonderful." Barnette said, amazed.

"Good," he said, notacing that Barnette was not quite with it at the moment, and he decided to take advantage of the situation. "Do you thing Barnette will like it?" he asked his smile broadening as she gapped at the box.

"I'm sure she'll love it." She said back, not realizing what he said. The vioce in the back of her head said, "What did you say?" and Barnette felt herself say it, wondering how the voice in her head had been able to use her mouth, and worried that she might be going crazy.

"I said, do you think Barnette will like it." He repeated slowly as she looked up at him, tearing her gaze from the box. Her mind began to race. Who was Barnette? She was Barnette, but he couldn't be giving this her. Who was the other name Barnette. The voice sighed, and had her clarify.

"Who's Barnette?" she asked, wanting to know who he intended to give this gift to.

"She's one of the dread piolets, pretty girl with green hair, and eyes the most beautiful shade of purple. I had a talk with the doctor bout a week ago, about some problems I'd been having with my stomach, and he said that I was in love with this girl. Could you imagine that? A man falling inlove with a women. I didn't want to believe him, but a voice kept telling me he was right. The damn thing wouldn't shut up, so I humored it, and said I'd confess my love to her by giving her three great gifts on Christmas. What do you think, does Barnette like it?" he said. Barnette's mind reeled at this, only holding on to a few words, which the oddly calm voice repeated back to her. "In love with this girl, and did you catch the last part? Does Barnette like it?" The voice said, emphising the does. As Jack put the box back into his cloak, asnd continued to stare at her, his pale face shining in the light.

What happened next, came so fast, so unexpectedly, that jack didn't even have time to put his arms up. Barnette flew off the bench into him, arms wrapping tightly around his ribs, to which he flinched heavily, as she sqeezed as tight as she could, eyes filled with tears, afraid he might dissapear if she lousened her grip. When she finally let go, he began talking again, bringing the box back out and handing it to her.

"Open it, and tell me what you think." She was so happy that he felt the same way for her, that she had forgotten all about the box. She popped it open, and inside sat a shining silver hand gun.

"I tweaked it a bit, so that as long as your pointing at something, it will hit it." He said, as she looked at it, and saw slightly below it, several gold rings, each encrusted with a diferent gemstone. Seeing where she was looking, he added, "I had some stuff left over after I finished, so I made you a little extra." He reached into his cloack again, taking out a thick gold disk and a glass dome. He placed the disk on the bench seat, and then continuied digging, untill he pulled out a big blue stone. It was a giant round saphire, and with it a small bag. He turned the glass dome upside down, dropped the big saphire in, and then dumped a bunch of other smaller ones into the dome. He picked up the gold base placed it on the open end of the glass, and then flipped it over. To her astonishment, the orbs stoped falling when they hit the mid-point, and were floating inside. The smaler ord started orbiting the big one, some of the smaller ones getting smller ors orbiting around them.

"It's a model of what the sol system was like, when Earth was the human home world, the big one is sol, or the sun." He said as he gave it to her. She was mesmerised. "The third, is me admiting that I love you." He said quickly, as she was absorbed in the glas dome. She looked up at these words, and put the dome next to box.

"You know what?" she said as she stood up, and walked at him. "I think I like that one best of all." She reached out to embrace him, but he fliched worse than ever as her arm brushed his ribs on the left side. "What's wrong?" she said, worry in her voice, and on her face.

"Noth… nothing," he panted, more color draining from his face. "just got a little burned when something exploded while I was working. I'll meet you back here in a half hour, I'm going to go get patched up." He walked off, leaving Barnette standing there wondering what had happened. She hung her head, and noticed a pool of blood where he had been standing. How bad was this?

Jack headed for the mess hall, not the infermery. He peeked in the door, and located John, off in a corner, giving Meia a small box, which she exepted, her cheeks red. He had included a note that read what he had thought when he had bought the necklace.

"_Nothing fancy but still eye catchingly beautiful_." Jack would leave them alone, he was to far away anyway. He searched until he found Vinn, next to a side door. He left back out the door, and circled around to the side door, and poked his head in.

"Vinn, Vinn, come here!" He said quietly, yet firmly. Vinn looked up and saw his friends pale face, told Jura he'd be back in a minute, and hurried over.

"What in god's name happened to you?" He said worried, as Jack pulled him into a near by storage room.

Just finished my gifts, little floating things that or orbit around each other, you mind patching me up?" He asked holding out a Med. Kit. Vinn took it and got to work. Jack taking off the cloak, the shirt underneath was soaked in blood on his left side. Jack pulled the shirt of, all of the skin on the left side of his torso was missing. "I couldn't have gone to the doctor." Jack said, as Vinn started. " He's a smart guy, would have seen right through my little, I got burned in an explosion excuse."

"Who'd you use it on?" Vinn asked, keeping up conversation.

"Barnette, she was out of it, and I went on talking about her, but as if I was taking to someone else, use her name and everything, took her a couple minuets to realize she was the only Barnette. She grabbed me around the ribs, and noticed that it hurt." Jack said, recalling what had happened. It took Vinn 15 minutes to fully prepare and bandage the wound.

"Here you go. Glad I could help." Vinn said, as Jack put his blood soaked shirt back on. He then dug in his cloak and pulled out a small syringe, full of a glowing green liquid. He uncapped it, and injected it into the vein of his left arm. He noticed the look that he was getting and explained.

"It's a supplement that accelerates blood cell growth about 20 times faster than normal, until back to safe levels" Vinn nodded, and left the room. "Say hi to squawky for me!" Jack called after him, and slid his cloak back on. Jack walked to the door, and shut and locked it. He turned, waved his gauntleted right hand across the room, palm out. He turned his hand palm up, and swept his fingers upward. All of his blood in the room, rose of the floor and floated in the air. He brought his gauntlets together, and the blood all combined into a ball. He snapped his fingers, and the ball burst into brilliant purple flames. Shrinking until all of the blood was gone. He opened the door and walked out, it looked as though he had never been in there.

The mess hall was still celebrating at full capacity, the captain in he Santa outfit, reindeer with eyes that didn't point in the same direction bobbing in front of her, as she threw out arm loads of small packages from a big sack. Hibiki and Dita were sitting next to each other, and she handed Hibiki a little box.

"Merry Christmas, Mr." She never got a chance finish her sentence, because Hibiki chose that moment to deliver his gift. He darted his head forward, and gave her a small kiss on the lips. Dita turned red and sat there grinning, stupefied by his actions.

"Now you can't say I didn't get you anything." He said satisfied, and turned back to his plate of juicy turkey. Meia was in complete shock; having found the little necklace that John had given her. She found it almost as unexpected as the new surge of feeling that rose in her, or what she did next. She gave him a big hug, unable to stop herself. Everyone around her was surprised ass well, they had never seen Meia acting like this before.

Jack made his way back to the meeting place, where Barnette was already waiting for him.

"Sorry, took a little longer than I expected" he said, giving a small smile. She was relived to see his face had a bit more color in it now.

"You left before I could give you your present." She said, holding out a small box. He took it and popped it open, reviling a small, amethyst carved in the shape of the angel of death, holding little scythe. "You said you love the color purple, and from what I heard you were like in combat aboard the ships we raided, that image came to mind." She said.

"Well, that is what they made me to be." He replied, putting a large helping of disgust on the word they. Barnette just stared at him, confused. He gave a long sigh, and went on. "I have decided, with persuasion from John, to tell you who and what I really am. But first, I have to showyou what make's me what I really am." He said, and walked over to the pool of blood he had left during his last visit. She followed and stood next to him. He swept his arm in the same way he had in the storeroom. The blood floated up, and he pulled it into a ball. "This was the first thing I had to show, and this," He snapped his fingers, "is the second." The ball erupted into dark purple flames, and slowly burned out.

After a minute, Barnette asked,

"What was that?"

"The reason I'm here." Jack replied darkly.

Well, here you go. I'm on summer break, and am writing these things as fast as i can, because i don't have anyof this written down. I just type it as i think it, expept with a few parts i already have hammered out. i try to update atleast once a day, but i had 3 chapters done that i did during the waiting period to beable to submit work. hope you enjoy reading this.


	9. Feeding the Inferno

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Chapter nine, are any hard answers going to be gained, as we find out who jack really is?

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, because I'm too crazy to own anything.

**#9: Feeding the Inferno**

Barnette didn't know what she had just seen. A pool of blood rising up at the wave of a hand, exploding into purple flames at the snap of fingers. She didn't know if it was beautiful or horrifying. She wondered what Jack had meant when his told her she was going to find out who, and what he was. Jack sat down with his back to a tree, and motioned for her to join him. She walked over and sat next to him. She was scared of what he had shown her, but not of him.

He was speaking fast and quiet, not wanting to be overheard. He sounded scared, something new for her to hear from him, fear. "I'm am telling this to you, only because I love you, and you need to know, before you decide anything. What I will tell you, will most likely change any opinions you have had of me." He said, sadness tugging at his voice. Barnette didn't think anything could change her feelings of love to him. "I was taken in by the military, after an accident I caused. They locked me up, I couldn't escape. I hurt myself trying to get out. They said that they would let me out occasionally if I helped them. I agreed, and they trained me. I served them just to get out, and they repaid me with money and colonization artifacts. They warned me I could not get away, no matter what I did, they would get me back. I try it once, and they were right." He said, Barnette taking it in, and one question came to mind in an instant.

"What did they make you do?"

"I can't give you full details, they made sure of that, but basically horrible stuff, that was either too dangerous for others, or too unethical for normal soldiers. Taking over sigle enemy ships by myself, or slaughtering innocent and defenseless people who they felt would get in the way of things." He said, not able to meet her eyes. He was surprised when her arms wrapped around him.

"Your safe now," she whispered in his ear in a soothing voice. " You're with us, and they can't force you into anything anymore." She was holding him softly, and he kept up, a panic ceasing him.

"No! No I'm not. They're the whole reason I'm hear, the sent me." He said in hysteria. Barnette just hugged him tighter, and kept trying to calm him.

"They sent me to, to, capture something, and k-kill… ki... kill…" He couldn't finish as a wave of misery swept over him, and he tried to fight it back. Barnette just kept whispering hat it was okay, that he was safe. He couldn't believe she was doing this, after what she had seen, and what he had told her. She was still next to him, trying to confront him. Maybe this thing called love was more than he realized, more than anyone realized. Another surge of misery hit as he thought of what he would soon do, what no one, not even himself, could stop him from doing. At that exact moment in time, he hated everything. Most of all he hated himself, for his many short comings, for having this power flowing through him, and for helplessness to save anything. He hated every thing. Everything, except the woman holding him in her arms.

"I've got to go." He managed to get out, as he stood, fighting the burning at the corners of his eyes. He left as fast as he could disappearing into the dark, not wanting to taint her with his presence any longer.

Barnette sat there for a long time, just thinking, trying to figure out anything. She stood, knowing what she needed. More answers and information, and for the first time, she knew where she could get them from. She walked into the mess hall, empty now, as it was close to four in the morning, the small tables back in their normal places. She left, and headed to the left arm of the ship. She noticed that Jack's door was locked, but she headed for the door across from it. She knocked on the door, but there was no response. After several minutes of knocking and waiting, she finally got what she was looking for. The door slid open to reveal a sleepy, and severely annoyed John.

"What the hell you want." He said angrily.

"I want to talk about Jack." She said, not backing down

"Well, then why don't you talk to him then?" He said, but something caught his eye. "Wait, what is that." He said, pointing at a shiny handgun hanging at her waist, his voice curious instead of angry.

"It was a gift he gave me." She said, holding up the shiny firearm.

"Ok, just give me a sec," he said, slipping on his shoes, then stepping out the door, and closing it behind him, "lets go get some coffee." They went back to the mess hall, and John made a quick pot of coffee, then sat a the table with Barnette, handing her a cup as she examined the gun more closely, trying to see what had made John's attitude change once he saw it.

"What do you want to know?" He asked, sipping his coffee.

"What is so special about this?" she said, holding up the gun.

"That was Jack's favorite gun, all that he had when the military took him in. He said that he loved it more than the time he was aloud outside of were the kept him, loved it more than life." John said staring at the gun.

"What happened when the military took him in? What was the accident?" She said, seeing the little gun in a new way. He loved it more than life? Than why had he given it to her? What did this mean?

"He was four years old," John started, "there was a call that a housing complex on the edge of the city, and there was one survivor who had never left the building, but had little damage. MPs showed up to see what had happened. They found a little boy, with no skin on his hands. They questioned him, and he told them that he had made a purple light come out of his hands, and the building caught fire, with purple fire. Only a few things were left at the site, it was like the complex was never their, a few pieces of pipe, and a couple trinkets survived. They analyzed it and found they were all the same type of metal. They saw potential in the kid, so they inducted him into the military's special weapons program. After several tests, they found that he was shooting pure energy that he had a special affinity with. They also found that only that metal they had found, was undamaged by the energy. They knew that if they could control him, that they would have a nearly unstoppable weapon at their disposal. They found a place on the planet where the metal was plentiful, and began mining it. When they had enough, the built a cage ant threw him in it. He had that gun with him at the time and pulled it on the man who threw him in the cage, who snatched it away. He was angry, and fired a beam of that energy at the man. There wasn't much left of the man, or the wall behind him, but he had burned all of the skin off of his hands, and couldn't direct the energy anymore. The told him that he could have the gun back, and more, if he agreed to work for them. He agreed, and they started training him. They gave him those gauntlets he always wears, and they allowed him to direct the flow of his energy without harm to his hands, and he tried to get away. By then the military had a lot of the metal that was immune to the energy's power, and the military had formed exoskeletons that he was powerless against. He was recaptured, and didn't fight anymore. They put something in his head, that when triggered, turned him into their obedient servant, and there was nothing he could do about it. He learned faster than anyone they had ever seen, and soon knew more about hand to hand, gunplay, and swordplay than almost any of top brass, and he enjoyed using this knowledge. He was good at using it, something along the lines of a prodigy. He built the boots that he wears himself, with the same metal as the gauntlets. He made the cloak as well, but that was different. He wanted to combine some of his power in it, make it special. His power destroyed or damaged everything it touched, but he needed to get around that. He found that if he "donated" a part of himself to his energy, he could make it so it wouldn't harm what it was used on. They found him the next day, most of his skin gone, and managed to save him. He had made his cloak special with the donation of his flesh. Projectiles would hit the cloak, and the cloth would push them around his body, without harming him, and it could carry almost anything that was smaller than he was. He later learned that as he got better with the power, it would be easier to control, and eventually he would be able to make non-harmful energy without needing to donate himself to do it." The whole time Barnette listened horrified at what the military had done, but not really shocked at the lengths they would go to get an edge over the women.

"How he turned out to be they way he is, is nothing short of a miracle. All the death, destruction, and force servitude he's been through, and he can still look on life with good humor. He was the reason I quit, we had been friends for along time, and he couldn't tell me what they were doing, but I found out what they had done one day, and I quit the same day. Vinn is one of the only one's that knows this, but he had nowhere to turn so h stayed in. He told me tonight that Jack had made another donation on a gift for you tonight." John said, pouring himself another cup of coffee.

"Yeah, a little thing with pieces orbiting around one another." She said, still going over what John had told her in her head. "his side was hurt, and he left a pool of blood, and he came back, showed me that he could make it float, and made it burst into purple flames. He told me he was on a mission to steal something, and kill, but he broke of and ran away." Barnette said, wondering if John knew what he had been talking about.

"He told me this morning, he has been sent to take the Paexis in the ship, and kill anyone who was aboard, and destroy the ship. As usual, he is aloud to save me and Vinn, as we are, or were, military, and already know all about him. Told us he'd be doing it at 10:00 the next day." John said, and Barnette's eyes widened.

"Did you try and stop him?" Barnette said, horrified.

"Damn strait I did!" John said, his voice rising in anger. "He reminded me that I could do nothing to stop him. I said I'd do whatever I could, and die trying."

"Don't you mean, or die trying?"

"Nope, if you stand against him, there is no or, your as dead as if you jumped into the vacuum without a suit." Barnette didn't know what to say, and was wondering why he would do something like that, and the day after he said he loved her?

"He doesn't have too, he can stop, they can't get him out here!" Barnette said. John just sighed, and shook his head.

"It's that thing in his head, once it goes off, he is as powerless to stop himself as we are. But damn it, I'm still going to try, and Vinn too, Meia said shed do what she could, but I really don't want to lose her in that way. Vinn's going to ask Jura later today, but I doubt she'd want to." John said, grimly, especially when he had mentioned Meia.

"I'm in to." Barnette said resolutely, she wasn't going to let him destroy her heart and her home.

"Then go and get some sleep, you'll need to be at the top of your game." John said, downing the rest of his coffee, patting her on the shoulder, and walking of, muttering something like, "Crazy kids have all got death wishes." Barnette just sat thinking, her emotions already stretched to the failing. She had been so happy a few hours ago, when Jack had first showed up in the environmental area, and told her he shared her feelings, and now was told he had not only signed, but written her death certificate.

It was only 5 minutes to ten. Jack hadn't been seen by anyone all day, and most people were already in bed, still tired from the celebrations that had gone on last night. John, Vinn, Meia, Jura, and Barnette all stood in John's room armed to the teeth, and waiting to move out to put up their line of defense.

"Why didn't we post a guard on the door of the Paexis chamber?" Meia asked John, again, to which John replied, again,

"Because they would be dead before they could tell us he's there. Just watch the screens and when they BOTH go out, we'll move out." The small data pad in Meia's hand showed the images of a camera they had placed in the hall outside this room, and one showing the inside of the Paexis chamber.

"How do we know that he was telling the truth about the time? How does he know it will go off?"

Because it's in his brain, and he can feel it getting ready, and the military probably told him when it would go off." John answered, again. Meia had been asking the same questions for the last ten minutes. The little clock in the room hit 10:00. The door on the screen opened, and the camera's image disappeared. They waited in silence, and about 2 minutes later, the door to the Paexis chamber door opened, and the camera went out.

"That's the sign to go" John said, then added, "It's been nice knowing you all." The three women gave him a strange look, only he and Vinn knew what Jack was capable of in this state. They opened the door, and Barnette glanced at the camera, a number of small metal needles embedded in the device. They reached the Paexis chamber, and John entered first sweeping the room with his shotgun. The others followed, and set up overlapping field of fire. The Paexis glowed with dark patches of blue and turquoise, the showing fear and anger. Two of the six tendrils that the Paexis used to power the ship were no longer connected, and cupped in a strange cover to keep them from extending back into the ship. John stepped forward and shouted in to the room.

"Jack, come out here and face us!" A shadow moved in the back of the room, it scrambled further up the wall and on to the ceiling. It scurried toward them, and then dropped to the floor. It was suitable to make a shiver run down the spines of most of the group. It was dark, the only light provided by the Paexis, and something about the way the thing in front of them moved, seemed inhuman. The thing rose up, hooded head, cloaked body, shining boots and gauntlets.

"You shouldn't have come." It said, but the voice was the most horrible thing that most of them had ever heard. It was full to the brink with insanity and fury, and a sick joyfulness, it was fracture, rising and lowering in octave and volume, several voices speaking at once, like it brain had been broken to pieces, then sewn back together in the wrong order. The thing that was most disturbing, was that there was no humanity in the voice.

"I told you, won't let you destroy this place, the people I love, without a fight." John yelled back.

"Than you shall die with the rest." The insanity in the voice rose and it began cackling madly. The group opened fire, and it moved so fast that the almost missed it. It dropped to the floor and slid at Meia on its back, foot outstretched, sweeping her feet out from under her, and she fell to the floor. The thing rolled onto its stomach, raising one leg, and drove the sharp pointed toe of the boot down at her stomach. John had been ready though, and turned his shotgun to its side, and intercepted the boot. Meia rolled away as the thing increased the force behind the boot embedded in the shotgun, and snapped it in half, the boot embedding in the floor a full 5 inches where Meia had just vacated. A point of purple light appeared in the floor around the foot, and it swung its body sideways, etching a purple line in the floor in front of the entire group. Tall purple flames erupted out of the gash in the floor as it lifted its boot, and the group had to move out to either side of the wall. By the time John turned past the wall, the thing was pulling at another tendril of the Paexis, Gauntlets glowing with purple energy. They opened fire on it again, but it simply ignored them, the bullets not being able to get past the cloak, and pulled the other four tendrils out and capped them with the strange devices. It moved on all fours, scuttling close to the ground like a lizard, cloak swishing in its wake. It stood, back to them, hands out stretched at the Paexis, palms out, fingers spread, and a translucent purple barrier formed around the Paexis.

The group continued emptying everything they had into the thing. Meia had run out of projectiles, and was resorting to using the ring that she always wore. Jura used the last clip she had, and also switched to her multi-faceted ring. The laser seemed to have less effect than the guns. Barnette had just finished unloading the last of her main weapons ammo, and was in the process of switching to the pistol she always carried, when her hand brushed against the silver pistol that she had gotten as a gift. Jack's word floated up from the back of her head. "As long as you're pointing it at something, it will hit it." She had just dismissed it as him stating what a gun does, but maybe, it had meant something else. It was worth a try, and she was out almost out of time. She thumbed the clip release and checked to find 8 regular bullets in it. Something else hit her from her memory, something John had said. "He loved it more than life." She jammed the clip back in the gun, and pulled the casing back, pumping a round into the reciver. She leveled it at the thing's center, and pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash and retort had been ordinary. Her hope for anything special to happen died. The purple barrier around the Paexis intensified, then flickered and dissolved. The thing turned, clutching at its stomach with its right hand. It bought the gauntlet up and examined the blood upon it. Its head flicked up, and it said, more rage than anything, "you ought not have done that!" It clicked the pointed metal fingers together, and then spread them, a ball of fluctuating purple energy that grew as he spread the fingers. "You should have made that a fatal shot!" It cranked its hand back, and threw the ball of energy at Barnette. The ball of energy impacted with a explosion of deadly force.

Jack felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and watched, as his hand came up to his face, shining with his blood. How had his blood gotten on his hand, the cloak stopped all projectiles from hitting him. The part of Jack's brain that held his humanity was still working, which it shouldn't have, as the thing in his brain turned him into the thing that was facing his friends. He hadn't been aware of this protected region until the bullet had impacted. He felt the feeling of his body and the rest of his mind, and his humanity still worked to. At was like having two brains at once, so he saw things in two different ways. As he looked at the group, one part saw enemies, things that had hurt him, while at the same time, saw his friends, and the one person he truly loved, Barnette, holding a silver pistol in her hand. He realized that the power he put into the pistol to make it hit what ever she wanted, overrode the power in the cloak. The bad thing was that the bad part of his brain, heard these thoughts, and the perceptions it had had shifted from enemies, to threats. And it had to neutralize all threats. He felt himself say, "you should have made that a fatal shot!" as his arm cranked back to throw the energy ball it was holding, aimed at Barnette. "No!" the part of his mind shouted, and suddenly, his good mind got a boost from somewhere deep within him, expanded enough, just enough, to alter the trajectory of the orb to hit the wall above her head. It then contracted back to what it had been before. The thing turned and raised its arms, happier than it had been, because it had neutralized the threat, and placed the barrier back around the Paexis. It began to bring its hands together, one on top, to one on bottom, and the Paexis began to shrink. It cupped its hands together, and the Paexis shrank to about the size of a basketball. It grabbed it, and was in the process of stuffing it into its cloak, when a voice came from behind it.

"I won't make the same mistake twice." It was Barnette, she still had the pistol rasied, now pointed at the things head. The good part of Jacks mind had a swoop of joy, she would finish him now, and then he couldn't hurt her, or anyone, anymore. The bad part was furious, because it was about to die, because it couldn't complete its mission, but mostly because it had missed, and it never missed. Barnette's hand, however, began to tremble, and she lowered the gun slightly, tears in her eyes, she couldn't do it, and the bad part saw its chance. It dug its claws into the floor, the energy giving a considerable boost in strength, and it ripped up a piece of the thick metal floor, like it was opening peeling an orange. It dove into the hole below, and disappeared into the darkness beyond.

"I couldn't do it!" Barnette sobbed, out of sadness and anger at herself, and collapsed onto her knees. Meia grabbed her little telecom unit, and was about to call the commander.

"Don't do that, if you have someone go to stop him, their be dead before they can do anything, we might be able to stop him once he's out in space, his piloting skills aren't as good as his ground combat skills. But we have to wait tell he leaves, because he'll kill anyone who gets in his way." John said, and then convinced Meia was going to do what he said, he walked over to comfort Barnette. "Are the cameras in the Vangaurd launch by still working?" Meia grabbed her data pad, and was halfway through the word yes, when she finished with no. "Ok, than lets get going. Barnette, go get ready to launch, after you shot him, he missed you in his retaliation, I've never seen him miss. Meia, get anyone who can get out into space to help, tell them to get out there as soon as possible. Let's go, the sooner we get out there the better, even if it just keeps him busy tell more can get out to help. Vinn, go and get the men ready." The all rushed to what they had to do, because the next step in the Jack's mission was to destroy the ship, and anyone who was a witness. Meia, John, and Jura reached the door to the bay, and entered, to find Jack's Vanguard missing. John hopped into his Van, as Meia and Jura got in their dreads. Hibiki burst in with Dita, and got they prepped, and then the airlock cycled them through. They spotted Jacks Van accelerating away and Meia and Hibiki combined, much to Dita's discomfort. The dragon like Vandread sped after it, going nearly 4 times it speed, and delivering a glancing blow. It circled for another attack, and hit the Vanguard head on with their wing, but the thing grabbed on, and held. It climbed over the Vandread, over its body, then its neck. The Vandread did a complicated series of loops and rolls to dislodge the passenger, but to no avail. The Van braced itself, and stated trying to pull the head off. Meia and Hibiki split, sending Jack's Van Spinning off, and Dita flew in for her turn. Their Vandread looked around, unable to locate the Van. The proximity warning flared, and the Vanguard appeared in front of them. The twin cannons flipped onto the Vandread's shoulders and began charging, but not fast enough. The Van impacted the right shoulder, and after a few seconds of trying, ripped one off. The Vandread swatted the Vanguard and cannon away, but the Van managed to start charging the captured device. Vandread Dita spilt, and the thing disappeared. Hibiki had decided not to give Vandread Jura a go, not seeing the defensive capabilities of much use here.

"Can't Bart just shoot it down with the 'Nirvana's' weapons?" Hibiki yelled over the COM. Meia answered him.

"No, that thing has the Paexis, and the ship is powerless without it, we are going to Form the Super Vandread, and take it down now!" Meia said, and the 3 dreads and Vanguard fused. They looked up to see a bolt of purple energy flash past them, chasing a dread, and missing.

"Thought I'd lend a hand!" Barrette said, as she dodged another bolt of energy, "Doesn't seem to happy with me does it?"

Jack fired energy beam after energy beam at Barnette's dread, wanting revenge for the pain in his gut. Strength had flared in the good part of Jacks brain, enough to knock them off target, but it was getting weaker.

Another beam of purple energy flew past Barnette's dread, this one getting pretty close, the thing was so preoccupied with hitting her, it wasn't noticing the Super Vandread approaching. She was determined to keep it occupied as long as possible, to give her friends a chance to live on, even if it meant her end. Another beam lanced past her, this one grazing one of her wings, melting and burning the metal. Her dread slowed, and another beam hit her thrusters and engines. The insane and fractured laughter filled all the COM channels. The Van put both hands into the next beam, making it almost as big as the Vanguard. Her engines dead, Barnette could do nothing but watch as the massive energy beam streaked toward her, and hope that she had bought enough time for Hibiki and the others to do their thing.

The good part of Jack's watched the energy leave the Vanguards hands, unable to stop himself from firing it at the immobile dread, fighting the other times had worn him out to much. "No!" The good part yelled in his head, the bad part laughing its terrible laugh. A sudden surge of power rose in the good side from deep within, more powerful than ever before, but his good presence didn't expand, so he could make a last ditch effort to try and save Barnette. Instead, a searing pain shot through his mind, and the laughing stopped. His hand flew up and grabbed his head, and the pain vanished. He shook his head, eyes watering… Wait, he shook his head again. He was back in control of his body! He looked around him, just in time to see a massive green sword, heading strait for him.

The Super Vandread lunged forward, spearing the little Vanguard with its sword, directly through the cockpit. The Van slumped, and the sword faded, leaving the Vanguard floating, dead in space, hole clean through the center. Two other Vanguards grabbed it, and hauled it back to the 'Nirvana'. They landed in the bay and John jumped out of his vanguard, to look into Jack's. Meia walked up next to him, and said,

"Search the corpse, we need the Paexis."

"He ain't dead, look for yourself." Meia looked in, and saw Jack in an odd position, a purple energy barrier surrounding him. "And look, the barrier isn't burning anything, the cockpit only had special metal in the hand holds, to channel his energy."

Jack woke up in the medical bay bed, John next to him. Jack just stared, wondering how he got there. Then he remembered a green a sword, then a purple energy blast. His mind back track, and found what the blast has been directed at. Jack sat up straight, his eyes wide.

"You didn't kill her." John said, knowing what his friends first thought would be.

"But she couldn't have moved, I hit her engines." Jack said back, wanting to believe his friend but being unable.

"I was keeping close, as your shots were getting closer and closer, and you were so intent on hitting her, you didn't even notice me. I pushed her out of the way, with myself, except you roasted my Van's foot, and you'll owe me for that." John explained, then told him how most of the crew had now found out what he had did, and weren't too happy with him. "That Doctor, I had him do an X-ray of your head, and he found this." John held up a very tiny pronged object. "It was embedded in your brain stem. It is the thing that made you go into that frenzy, but it's burned out."

"That's not what it does, it does create that thing that I become. It only puts my mission goals into necessity, and locks away my humanity. That thing is stilling me, just the me I can keep back, until I want to let it out."

"Well, any, your back now, and we don't have to worry about the military interfering anymore." Jack stood up, and said he was going to talk to talk to the captain, and put the Paexis back. He put his cloak back on, and left an hour later, John felt the reverberations of the ship's engines starting, and 5 minutes later Jack walked back in.

"I'm out of here, I'm not wanted around anymore, and im leaving, as soon as I fix my Vanguard."

Than I'm going to!" John stood, he was all Jack had, all he ever had. They argued, Jack wanting John to stay with his new friends. John wouldn't let him leave him though.

"Fine, fine, but I bet Meia isn't going to be too happy you'll be leaving." John didn't say anything, he hadn't though about that he would be leaving Meia. "You had better go tell the captain, she'll want to know why the lead Vanguard pilot was leaving." Jack left, and headed to the Vanguard bay, getting looks as he walked through the ship. John walked onto the bridge and face the captain, and with out hesitating, turned in his resignation.

"Ma'am, your kicking my friend Jack off of you ship, and I'm afraid I will be accompanying him."

"I didn't kick him off the ship." The old woman said softly. "He said there was no way he could repay us for what he had almost done, and told me he was leaving. I told him that I knew what the military was capable of, and after Duero told me what he found, I said there was no need for him to leave. But he insisted."

The next day, around noon, Jack and John stood in John's room, all of his stuff in the bags around him.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Barnette?" John asked as he finished closing the last duffel.

"No, I've already caused her enough pain, and I don't think I need to cause her anymore. I'll be right back, I got to hit the bathroom." Jack said as he walked out the door, it shut behind him, and he locked it. It took a couple of seconds for John to realize what had happened. He ran to the door, slamming his fist against it, and yelling.

"Jack, you son of a bitch, open this door!" but there was no one in the hall to hear this, just a key laying by the door.

Jack's Vanguard left the bay, traveling in the opposite direction as the 'Nirvana'. By the time someone opened johns door, Jack would be to far away to follow, not having told him where he was going. Jack relaxed in the seat, he really liked being part of the 'Nirvana'. He laid his arm on his leg, and felt a small lump through the cloak. Odd, he had so much storage space in this thing, that there was never any outward appearance of the objects inside. He pulled out a small box, and flicked it open. He vomited over the side of his chair, a pain in his chest flaring at the sight of the little figure of death. It wasn't his heartache that made him sick, but the pain he had cause Barnette. He focused his rear camera at the ship, for one last look, and something caught his eye. A large column shaped ship, with little gray balls spraying from the sides and bottom. 7 more appeared as he watched. Then a giant ship, easily five times the size of the others, appeared behind the rest, purple light flaring from recessed places in it's hull.

"Enemy contact, 2 harvest flag ships…, no 3, no… 8 total, and," one of the bridge offices cryied out, as data started pouring in "one of the big Planet destroyers, pioleted by a Paexis!" B.C. opened a COM channel to the entire ship.

"All hands to battle stations, multiple enemy contacts, engage at will!"

Wow, sorry it took so long, but after all of that, all i can say is one thing."

"These hunters have come to our aid, Arbiter. They will fight by our side!"

If you want a better picture of some of the stuuf, for the silver pistol, think, of the Falcon 2 from Perfect dark, and for Jacks crazy evil voice, Kind of like the flamingo in the TV seires adress unknown, in Max Payne 2, the fall of max Payne, only crazyer and more fractured.


	10. By the grace of God

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

This id goona be a short one, cause, I'm out of ideas, so, I'll just quote some more halo 2. "Marine, did I give you permission to bitch?"

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, but if you wanted to give it to me, I won't complain.

**#9: By the grace of God**

the Harvest flag ships dropped their load of round drop ships, which, then dropped their load of cube types. Several of the ships resembling different animals were also present. A portion of the cube types converged, and formed the 'Nirvana', Vandread copies. Everything was purple tinged, Like the red enemy had been. It looks like earth had another Paexis, because their massive, planet destroying capital ships was here, surround in the odd shield the Paexis used to protect itself.

The dreads and Vanguards were already in attack positions, the Super Vandread at the front. They all charged forward and engaged the enemy in predetermined attack groups, but soon dissolved into singling out enemies and eliminating them. Bart fired the 'Nirvana's' weapon systems as often as possible, taking out large chunks of cube types, the Super Vandread focusing on the Clones of the ship and the Vandreads. Barnette had found herself separated from her attack team relatively early, as she chased down and destroyed a drop ship that had made the mistake of targeting her. She started to accelerate back toward the main forces, but found her ship immobile. She looked around, finding a strange glowing web ensnaring her Dread. The same eel like enemy that Meia and Hibiki had defeated on Christmas the previous year now had her trapped. Arms tipped with razor sharp claws rushed toward the dread, eager to rip her apart, as she closed her eyes, and braced for the end. A series of explosions shook her ship vioently. After a few seconds, a knocking came at her cockpit, and she opened her eyes. Jacks Vanguard was staring down at her.

"are you just going to sleep the whole time, or would you like to give me a hand? That bastard took my left arm, and I'd like to get it back." He said, waving the little stump that had been his Vanguard's left arm. Barnette nodded, and accelerated around to face the eel bot. Barnette released a volley of missiles, and peppered the alien with as she passed, Jack flying straight in, a spear clutched in his remaining hand, point curved and extending off of the side near it's head. He dove at the alien's face, and drove the spear into its large eye, planting his feet on the thing's head. He pulled out a pole from the back of his Vanguard, and it extended into a scythe, curved blade glistening in the light of the expositions all around. He jetted to the thing's neck, and with a swing of the deadly blade, parted its head with the rest of it. It stopped moving, and Jack moved to the arm clutching his arm, and cut it loose with another swing of his scythe. He dropped the weapon, and grabbed his arm, then positioned it so the broken ends met, and he fused back together using his power. He flexed the arm.

"Damn, that hurt." He said, gliding over, grabbing his spear, which collapsed into a pole like the scythe, and he packed it away. "Forgot I had this old thing," he said, gesturing to the scythe, "you reminded me that I still had it." He told Barnette.

"Why did you come back?"

"Well, I thought I'd put those destructive skills of mine to a good use for once, and there just happened to be thousands of things back here to help me with that, so I decided I'd stick around for a while longer." He answered with a smile. Barnette just glared at him, and he added, "if I don't do a job that's up to you're your standards, you can personally blow the living crap out of me when this is over." Barnette returned the smile, and replied.

"Well, I'll have you know that my standard are ridiculously high."

"Well, than I might just have to give a little effort."

"Then I might just have to blow you up anyway."

"Then it's a date." Jack finished has he flew of toward his next victim, dispatching the hapless manta ray thing with ruthless efficiency.

The Super Vandread had just cut down its second flag ship. The enemies produced by the flag ship keep attacking, and they though it might be because being so close to one of their Capital ship, the must be linked to that as well. They headed for the massive ship, and drove their saber into the shield, which repelled it as if it was no more than a little pebble.

"Maybe this will interest you?" A voice over the COM said. They watched as Jacks Van floated though the barrier like it wasn't even there. Hibiki pushed the Super Vandread forward, but it bounced off the barrier. "You think maybe I can do that because of this?" Jack said sarcasticly, his Vanguard holding a purple flame in its out-stretched hand. "Shall I go inside and see if I can... er… persuade our friends to stop this attack?" jack said, Meia about to tell him to do exactly that.

"Yes, go ahead, and see if they can take you with them." She said, she was still swore from hem trying to implant his boot in her stomach.

"I'll see what I can do, but I just have to say, you sure do have a lot of frontal padding in that over shirt thing you wear." He said with a laugh, and flew backward toward the ship behind him.

"What does that mean?" Hibiki asked Meia, as her face burned bright red.

"Nothing!" She snapped, "let's go help the others.

Jack floated next to the hull of the Capital ship.

"Where's the guest parking?" He said, knocking on parts of the hull. Off to his left, Toward the main cannon, a small opening appeared. "What, no valet?" He drifted inside, and the opening closed. The Van's sensors said it there was air to be breathed and he though he should be the one to breath it. He opened his Vanguard, and jumped out. He pulled a head set out of his cloak, and put it on.

"This is Lunatic 402 to Lady Bird, do you copy?" He said over the head set.

"What? Who is this?" The captain's voice came over the head said.

"This is Lunatic 402, I have successfully infiltrated target 0034597 and am piping through visual now. These look familiar? He held his hands up and examined them, sending the image to the 'Nirvana' through a camera mounted in the head set. A down of comprehension sounded from the other line.

"I thought you were leaving." The captain asked.

"Yeah, but I got bored without anything to kill."

"What is enemy 0034… whatever?"

"Didn't you get the memo?"

"No, must have missed it."

"Hmm, thought I sent you a copy, anyway, if you will kindly look into the space infront of you, look for a ship, might be hard to find, but it is big and purple, and makes planets go boom!" He said, clapping his hand together for emphasis at the last part.

"Oh, and just what do you plan to do while your there?"

"I was thinking I'd persuade our friends to stop attacking, or see if they will let me push the button that makes the you explode, I haven't decided yet." He said, the Super Vandread was also getting the feed, as well as Barnette. They were all wondering the same thing, was he going to betray them again?

"Let us know which you pick." The captain said her voice as calm as usual.

"Will do," Jack said, walking toward an open door, the camera showing those watching everything he saw. Another door was open in this room, and he walks at it. "I'm not feeling to friendly toward them though, they didn't even send a complementary Valet, and I hate trying to find a parking space." Every room he came to had an open door, which he took, it was like whatever was piloting the ship wanted to lead him somewhere.

"Could you hurry this up, some of us have places to be." Barnette called jokingly as she gunned down another drop ship.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, and with panties like yours, that's pretty uncomfortable."

"How would you know?" Barnette yelled back.

"Because I like to try new things, and I just had to give them a go. They don't look very good on me, but I'm sure they look great on you." He said, holding up a pair of lacy green undergarments. He had to pull the headset of to avoid going deaf has Barnette read him the riot act. When her voice finally gave out, he added, "You know, hostility isn't good in a relations ship." He slid the headset back on; Barnette was still spewing out expletives at him, but at a much-reduced volume. The next door he came to had purple light pulsating beyond it. "Looks like I'm here." He stepped through the door, and found himself looking at another Paexis, this one purple. A beam of violet energy lanced from the Paexis and jack leapt to the side, military instincts kicking in. The next beam jack caught in his hand, and it coiled into a ball. The Purple Paexis flared, and the orb exploding. The energy just washed over Jack, sending a wave of static over the link to the ships outside. "That's not a very nice way to treat a guest." Jack said, and the Peaxis gave no reply. He spread his arms, and his gauntlets started to glow. He slowly moved his hand leaving trails of different length and pattern behind. The Paexis pulsated, growing darker purple, and in mid air similar line appeared. Jack shifted his position. It's says it's mad that you killed the red Paexis, and it's here to get revenge." Jack said over the COM. The captain started talking to Jack about what to do, but something rose in Barnette's mind. Something Jack had told her in the jewelry shop.

"Parfait!" Barnette called her voice still raspy. The lead engineers face appeared in front of her, Can you open a COM link that I could see the our Paexis?"

"Sure, give me a minute." Her face dissapeared,and Barnette shifted her attention to Jack. "Jack, Can you make a veiw screen so that that Paexis can see something?"

"Yeah, but I don't think it really want to do anything other than kill us all right now."

"Just do it!" She said as forcefully as she could.

"Fine, but I don't know why." He started setting up a screen he pulled from his cloak, and muttered to himself, "never thought I'd be taking orders from a girl." The image of the blue Paexis appeared on Barnette's ship screen.

"Put this image on it." She told Jack, and he did it in a disgruntled fashion. The Blue Paexis appeared on his screen, and he piped it through to the one he had set up. Nothing happened, and then, all at once, the two of them started pulsating and flashing quickly. After about two minutes, the purple Paexis flashed the odd lines at jack, who took his hood of, and gave the thing a puzzled glare.

"It says that it is sorry it attacked us, and want's to join us on our ship, with its… mother." Jack said, and then flashed it some more odd lines of his own, which it returned. "it also says he can't stop the robots from attacking, that being so young, it was only allowed to steer the ship." Jack flashed it again, and the six tentacles attaching it to the ship retracted, and it started to shrink. It became the size of a basketball, and floated out the door. A few minuets later, Jack's Vanguard exited the protective barrier, and headed back to the 'Nirvana', dodging fire from the Earth forces. The view on the screen split, and Barnette, The crew of the Super Vandread, and the bridge appeared. Jack steeped in front of the screen, much to the surprise of those on the screen. Barnette spoke first.

"Get out of there so we can blow the ship up!"

"No can do, it told me that the shield around this thing are specially designed to withstand about anything up to crashing into a star. I'm going to see what I can do to change that." He stepped onto the platform where the Little Paexis had been. He spread his arms, and pointed them at the two highest places where its tendrils had been attached. Chains flew from his sleeves, and latched into the holes, he was raised of the ground several feet. Chains shot into the other four, so he was hanging, arms spread, with three chains out of each arm, attached to the ship. Purple energy began pulsing in and out of his body along the chains. After several minutes, he started to speak.

"I can't access the controls to the Bots, but I did manage to overload the reactors of the remaining flagships, I suggest all the troops get away from them, they go up in a hellstorm in about five minutes. And this baby, its shields are linked to the reactors, and can't be shut down until the reactors go up. But I can change it so the shield will stay up after the reactor blow, at least for a couple seconds, so the main force rebound in, and hopefully lessens the force exerted. Get everyone inside the 'Nirvana', and get moving, as far as possible away from here, and once this ship blows, put every ounce of juice you can into the shield on that thing, its going to be one hell of an explosion. The commander recalled all of the dreads and Vanguards as the 'Nirvana' turned and began to travel away from the attacking aliens.

"What are you doing, hurry up and get out of there!" Barnette said, but she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Can't, I have to stay in the system until the reactors blow, or the shields will go down when the reactors detonate." He said, attempting a shrug, but failing.

"No, you can't, you'll die in the explosion." Barnette cried, not wanting to lose him again.

"Yeah, so?" He said, "What's your point?"

"You can't leave me again!" she shouted, tears in her eyes, as the supply shuttle grabbed her inert dread and pulled it out of the fire zone, and back toward the fleeing 'Nirvana'.

"I'm not leaving you!" He said, mocking shock, "I'll be taken away in a giant fireball of my own creation! There is a big difference!"

"How can you be joking around at a time like this?" She yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks, angry with him for being so happy, a moment from death.

"Because, if I didn't, the only other thing I could think to do, would be to either say something noble and corny, like you'd see in a story like this, and I would rather die than do that. Hey, speak of the devil! That, or curl up into a ball and wet… well, curl up into a ball anyway, and that's kinda hard, seeing as I'm chained to the roof and walls.

Barnette was sobbing beyond control now.

"Bu… But…I… love…" she stuttered, and then nothing else coherent.

"Listen, I've got one last thing to say to you." Jack said his voice stern and calm. the others watching all thought together, "here comes the noble but corny final word thing, that you'd expect in a story like this." Barnette brought her head up and looked at him, her face sopping wet.

"The last thing I have to say, is sorry." He said, "but I'm going to have to keep your panties, because I need a change of underwear, and I don't have time to get another pair." The screen dissolved into static as a series of explosions blossomed from the Capital ships. Barnette continued crying as the massive ship detonated into a giant fireball, the shield flickered and failed, and the blast began to spread out in all directions. The flagships exploded right before the wave of energy hit, repelling a small bit of energy from the big blast, then getting swallowed by it. Bart killed the engines, and set the shields to maximum protection, reinforcing the rear portion. It was a full minute before the wave of destructive force hit the ship. It drained the shields over most of the ship, but the reinforced rear portion held, barley. The moon of the planet behind the shattered as the force hit it, and ground it into a smear of dust.

Bart left the Nav sphere. He had received burns to his whole body, except his back, and butt. Celtic rushed over to him, and commended him on being so brave, to stay inside the Sphere instead of jumping out as she helped him up. He failed to mention to her, or anyone else, that the only reason he had stayed in there was because he forgot he could leave it. He was happy that he "forgot" to tell her this, because of the attention she was giving him. She led him off of the bridge, helping him to the hospital. He thought he might "forget" to tell her what areas hadn't been burned, to save him the embarrassment.

Barnette walked into the Vanguard bay, More miserable than she had ever remembered being. They wanted her to help unload the new Paexis, because they couldn't get into Jack's vanguard to get it out, and she had had luck with his equipment before. The vanguard opened up as soon as she stepped though the door and the purple Paexis burst from it and began to expand. She walked over to where it was, seeing John with his arm around Meia, and feeling a stab of jealousy and pain. She felt it again as she saw Jura and Vinn lip locked in a corner and Dita and Hibiki walking off together, hand in hand. The Paexis flashed a sequence of different colors across itself, and Barnette just stared. After a few seconds something fell out of it, and rolled to her feet. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound got out. She fell backward, hitting the floor with a dull thud. She had fainted, Jacks corpse at her feet. The Paexis shrunk back up into it's little ball, and rushed off, eager to join its mother.

The end. Well, the end of this chapter. I've got a few more things cooked up to go wrong. I just have to say, because I haven't remembered to tell y'all that Meia is my favorite Female character of the show, all that closed of stuff, and dark past of tragedy are good as gold. Plus she's pretty cute when she's holding the baby at the end of the episode when she shoots herself off in an escape pod with the baby. Plus she's one of the few female characters I've seen that is well written, and not just some sex toy to some Japanese pervert. Like Jura, tell me that wasn't drawn for those reasons. I wasn't so crazy about Barnette at first, and she seemed along the same lines as Jura, but really turned around when she took over for Gascogne, and the outfit she wore really worked for her then. But I still wonder why she has to take all her clothes of the cook, cause I don't do that, or know anyone who does that. Well hope you enjoyed, and sorry if my cliffhangers suck, so more Halo 2 quotes! Both sergeant Johnson, the biggest, and best bad ass of all time!

"Please, don't shake the light bulb"

"We regret being alien bastards, we regret coming to Earth, and we most definitely regret the corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!"


	11. Meet me in the middle

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Hello, and welcome. Everything has multiple ways to do it, multiple paths to take, and actions to do along the way. I seem to be doing most of it the wrong way, so here's another chapter to serve as example. Things in asterisk's are actions, I just don't want to take the time to take it out of quotes every time I want the small action to occur.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, and dancing on graves is wrong.

**#11: Meet me in the middle**

Barnette awoke, feeling the now familiar mattress of the hospital guest bed supporting her. She left her eyes closed, hoping to drop back of to sleep as she listened to the voices in the room.

"That was a very noble thing to do." Duero said with the force of trying to make a point.

"No it wasn't, it was a weak and cowardly thing to do!" Jacks voice protested.

"How do you figure that?" Duero replied

"Because, the only reason I did it, was to get away from you all, I was just trying to take the easy way out!" He said back. Barnette opened her eyes and looked over at the two men. Duero was sitting at the Jack's bedside. Jack was lying it the bed, covers up to his chin, his belonging stacked next to him.

"What do you mean by that?" Barnette asked. They both looked over to her, not noticing she had woken.

"I mean, I tried to blow my self up, so I could get away from you." He said, with a smile, and Barnette caught on. He was joking around, even after being caught inside a roaring inferno of destruction.

"Oh, I see. Doctor, may I have some alone time with my good friend?" she ask, and Duero cast an odd glance at Jack.

"What?" He said defiantly. Duero just shook his head and left the room, and Barnette filled his vacated seat.

"How you doing? She said. Barnette had been in the hospital for 3 days now, and Jack had just now woken for the first time since the battle. People had dropped in to see Barnette, and she had just decided to get a few days rest in Duero's care.

"The doctor says my body took so much damage during the explosion, that aside from the fact that I should be dead, that I won't be able to move anything below my neck for at least another two weeks!" he said happily.

"Good, I don't want you going anywhere for a while. Especially not tell I'm through with you." She said, and that's when Jack met her eyes. It is said that the eyes are the gateway into the soul, and if you learned to read the clues the eyes gave, you could get a small idea of the person was thinking. And jack had been able to pick this up, and what he saw in Barnette's eyes, wasn't a good thing, at least for him anyway.

Barnette had determined what she was going to do when Jack regained consciousness, and the memories that spurred these thoughts fed her anger.

"You remember how you said if you didn't meet my standards, I could personally blow the crap out of you?" She said in a sweet voice.

"Yeah…"

"Well, I warned you that I had very high standards, and I am afraid that you didn't meet them." She said, beaming down at him. Something was unsettling about the gaze she had affixed him with. "You see, when the person I love, is about to commit suicide to protect everyone they have feelings for, I like the corny but noble speech right before they go."

"Well I'm sorry, but there are some values that I just cannot compromise." He said, raising his chin in the air.

"SMACK That is for not giving me the little corny speech." Barnette slaped him across the face, as hard as she could.

"SMACK That is for leaving without saying good bye me the first time you left. SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK Those are for trying to kill me. SMACK That is for making me shoot you. WHAM An that, that is for showing everyone what my panties looked like!" On the last one, she balled her hand into a fist, and drove it into his jaw. She then climbed onto the foot of the bed. She got on her hands and knee's over him. "Now, I've got something special for you." She said this in a very strange voice, and Jack noticed her eyes were no longer filled with danger, but something good. She either was hiding what she was thinking, or it was a good thing for jack, and he liked the tone of her voice, although he didn't know why. She moved up the bed, toward his head. She never broke eye contact with him, and he stared intently at her face, all the resolution in him keeping his eyes locked with hers. It was a tough job just keeping his eyes on her face when he was talking to her when she was standing next to him, and not on top of him. All of a sudden Barnette felt her left knee strike something as she brought it up to continue her advance. Jack's eyes bulged, and he mouthed wordlessly for a few minutes. Barnette looked down to see what her knee had hit, as found it hit dead center between his legs. Why was he reacting like that? What had happened? He wondering was stalled as words finally excaped his mouth, but in a very high voice.

"What did you have to do that for. Good lord, that hurts! Couldn't you have just shot me?" Barnette didn't know what it meant, but she made a mental note that she found a spot that he would have preferred to shot than hit in. She jumped of the bed. Jack kept talking. "By the way, can I keep your panties? We've been through alot together… WHAM" Barnette punched him in the jaw again.

"I'll consider that shooting you is an option, I gotta go, I've got to ask the doctor something, and I'm going to grab something to eat. And Meia said she'd come bye to have a talk about that flat chest joke you made to her." Barnette said happily as she walked to the door, and heard Jack mutter something like, "I can hardly wait." In a voice still quite high pitched. After talking to Duero, she found out why he had reacted to being struck between the legs like he did. She saw a weapon when he had told her "… Most sensitive part of the Male anatomy." She left to go tell Jura and the others, who would undoubtedly find this a most interesting bit of information. Duero walked back into the infirmary, wondering what had went on in his absence.

"Never leave me alone with her again!" Jack said, his voice still high pitched, and the pieces clicked together in his brain, as he sat at his terminal and began to type.

Sorry it's such a short one, but I am completely out of stuff. Email me! I want to talk about my writing, and the asking the reviewers is a big help in the improvement department! I need help, or I'm not going to be able to continue writing this stuff!


	12. The six controllers

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Hello, sorry bout the last chapter, but I just couldn't get anymore out at that point, so I'll try to do better now. I have been engrossed in Tales of syphonia for the last 3 days, so I haven't gotten much else done, Just beat it today! August 10th! Might do a fic on that 2!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, and dancing on graves is wrong.

**#12: The six Controllers**

Duero was at his wit's end. It had been a week and a half since Jack had been put under his care, and the man would not stop talking! Duero had had to endure it for this whole time, and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Why don't you just drug him?" Barnette suggested one day, upon paying jack a visit. "Or you could do what I do, and just beat the crap out of him."

"I don't want to risk giving him anymore medication, he is on so much already, anymore might kill him, and I am hardly the type of guy to beat up a crippled person." He replied, casting her one of his sly grins.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that, he had it coming! And I don't think I'll get the chance once he's back on his feet." Duero just kept starring at her with piercing gaze, thinking that he might have to resort to her idea soon.

He chose to drug him, though, once he got in a good enough condition to chance it. He gave him a small dose of a powerful tranquilizer. He slipped it in with his normal medical injections. It seemed to work. Jack stopped on his rant about why the leaders of Tarrak where all incompetent hicks, and his eye glazed over. But he then started to talk some more, but on a different subject, and with a strange, loving voice.

"Did I ever thank you for helping me out?" He asked, not quite looking at anything. "Your really great, what could I do to thank you?" Duero had injected him with a tranquilizer that could knock a solider in top condition out for 7 hours, and this man was still talking and he was injured to the point of death.

"I'd like to know exactly what you really are." Duero said in his mind, but it had worked its way out of his mouth, his curiosity helping out.

"I am one of the six controllers." He answered.

"What is that?"

"A controller is an Earthling who is granted abilities that correspond with a Paexis."

"And who are the other controllers?"

"I don't know. The Controllers were deemed too dangerous to be aloud to exist together in the same area, so the People who are left on earth, separated them, fearing that if they were to unite, they would destroy all."

"So your originally from earth?"

"Yes, but I have little recollection of it. I was placed on Tarrak after birth."

"We have met another controller, and destroyed him."

"What was the color was he?"

"He was with the red Paexis, which was also destroyed."

You cannot truly destroy a Paexis, unless it chooses to die. I have seen what happened when you defeated the red controller, the Paexis detonated the capital ship, and made a jump, and is still in the area of space around Tarrak and Mejale. The Earth will send a retrieval ship, to recapture the Paexis, and bond it with a new controller, it is my belief that we should acquire it first, as it is believed to be the most powerful of the three original Paexis's."

"I will call the Captain and report this." Duero walked to his computer and after a few moments returned to Jacks bedside. "She say's we will head back right this minute, and we will see if we can't get it before Earth does."

"Very good, but you must tell them that we have to hide in the magnetic storm, because if Tarrak sees this ship, it will blow it out of the sky without hesitation." Jack said, the tranquilizer wearing off, and his voice returning to normal. He had business on the surface of Tarrak, and they were expecting him, and only him to show up. And he was sure that they would be pleased to see him, even though his original mission had failed.

"How can Earth still have more Peaxises, the capsule from Pluto said they used the last one to create the Harvest." The captain asked to no one in particular. B.C. answered.

"They said that they had used the last original Paexis, not the last one." Barnette was also on the bridge, and had heard what Duero said. The cog's in her head started turning, and she understood.

"That's right!" she said excitedly, obviously liking having thought of something no one else had. "Jack asked me about what color stone I liked in a jewelry store, and I told him the Sapphire, a blue stone. He said something about blue being the mother of purple, and red the father. That is how I figure that the purple Paexis would react to the Blue one. And if you look at the rest of them as colors, with the fact that Jack said there are six controllers, you come up with Yellow, Blue and Red, the primary colors, as the three original Paexis. And with the info that the purple is like a child to the Blue and Red, then you would get two more if you combine them with yellow. You would get Purple, Green, and Orange, the secondary colors, and second generation Paexis, thus not the original."

"Well, I'm a little shocked that you figured that out yourself, but you are right." Jacks head appeared on the main view screen.

"You're going to get it for that!" Barnette called at him.

"Oh well, I like to deserve it if you're going to do it. Anyway, when a Paexis controller dies, you can pick a new human, although the People of earth always chose one of themselves, because they feel they are superior, but as a human, we are all descendant's of the people of earth, so anyone can become a controller. As an Earth chosen controller, I can merge a person with a controller-less Paexis, and make a new controller, while I also receive powers from the other Paexis. Only few controllers can do this, and I just happen to be one. I haven't been able to get the blue to give it's power to me, because it knew I was a controller, but I think it might now that it has been reunited with the purple one. Most Paexis would just give up their power, but after spending so much time with its good-natured controller's, it doesn't like the destruction the controllers are usually known for.

"What? There are more controllers on this ship?" B.C. said in amazement.

"Of course," the captain said, calmly, "Just look at the boy and the three girls he combines with. It is quite easy to see, especially if you actually look at them, how much they've all changed."

"Yes, the personal craft of a controller that comes in contact with their aligned Paexis becomes something befitting them. If you look, I am sure that you will find my Vanguard has changed, the Paexis do this, to give the controller a better chance of defending it." Jack said, very plainly, as if it should be obvious. I must go to the surface of Tarrak when we arrive, they will be expecting me, thinking I have destroyed you, and returning to them with the Blue Paexis. There is a good chance that they have already captured the Red Paexis, and if so, I will recover it, and then give the military what's coming to them!"


	13. The Green Controller

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Doing short ones, but I might make a longer one later.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, and dancing dolls are bad

**#13: The Green Controller**

Jack had recovered full use of body by now, and was hard at work to get back into the routine of becoming proficient at using his skills, which was necessary after not being able to move much for almost 6 weeks. He accosted Duero when after the first two weeks he could only move three fingers on his right hand. Duero explained that he had said that he would be able to move again, but only a bit at a time. Jack was unhappy, but using his new ability to use his powers without harming what he was using them on, he was at least able to feed himself. That had been a problem, and it Barnette made it a point to rub the fact that he couldn't move in his face every time she visited. She had often come in with a heaping plate of food, and use jacks motionless body as a table. He could do nothing but watch her eat, and on several occasions, walk off, leaving the plate, still stacked with food, on his chest, for him to stare at, until Duero decided to take notice, and take the food away. He know why Barnette was doing this, he could see it in her eyes the first couple of days. She had been stretched to the emotional breaking point, and was slowly recovering. That was one of the things that Jack found he loved about her, She was persistent, and was doing it to try and wear Jack out. He couldn't blame her, but he couldn't let her get away clean from the things she had done. He wasn't going to do anything harmful, he was just going to antagonize her a bit.

He ran down the corridor. He had just hit her room, and made off with the smallest pair of panties he could find. He was going to use it against her some how. But everything went wrong the moment he stepped out of her room. He came face to face with Barnette as he made a left out of her room, stuffing the Panties in his cloak. She caught sight of them, and he took of running, seeing the color of her face. It wasn't an embarrassed red, But one of anger so hot, he felt the heat radiating from her face.

He burst into the mess hall and dashed across it, jumped, and dug his gauntleted fingers into the wall above the door, and scurried up into the shadow of a light fixture. If all went right she would run right through the room and keep looking. She exploded into the mess hall after about another 12 seconds.

"Where the hell did he go?" She roared at the room, the ones closest getting up and running away, as all the other fingers pointed up at his location. "Give them back, NOW!"

He climbed onto the light and wrapped his legs around so that he hung upside down.

"If you insist." He said, and strung the Panties like shooting a rubber band. Here was his chance, and he wasn't going to pass it up. He fired the Panties off, and to his great delight, landed on her face. They slid of, to reveal her normally beautiful face the most disturbing color red anyone had ever seen from her. She unclipped the silver gun and pointed it at him.

"Whoa! Hey what the hel…" A single retort from the pistol cut him off, and he fell to occupied table below him, making the dishes he didn't land on clatter. Barnette picked up her underwear and left the room. Jack was lying on his back in the middle of Victor, Bart, Belvedere and Celtic. The room exploded in laughter as soon as Barnette was out of earshot. Celtic was seated where his head rested, and stared down at him, Giggling.

"What's so funny." Jack asked, ignoring the wound that wasn't really all that bad, just a pain shot.

"You should learn not to mess with girls when it's their time of the month." She said.

"What time, today's nothing special." He asked, to which her and Belvedere giggled even more, and went off to the bridge, leaving the three guys with bewildered looks. Jack flipped of the table and grabbed an empty seat, and started eating whatever was in front of him. "Women are so weird."

"What do you think that meant? Time of the month?" Victor said, and the other two shook their heads.

"But Celtic did say I had better watch out, because she knew my weak spot." Bart said, scratching his bald scalp.

"Oh, yeah, Barnette probably told her, because she found out about the family jewels, so you had better be on you guard, or, be a wimp, and don't do anything to piss them off." Bart and Victor looked at him, worried looks in their eyes, and they continued eating. They were thinking that they would need to keep a watch about what they did around their female friends.

"Hey, when Misty first arrived on the ship, she asked if Dita was Hibiki's girlfriend." Bart said, realization hitting him.

"What's that?" The other two asked, Jack shoving a dressing over the gunshot wound.

"I just figured it out, we all have friends that are really close, and that are female. What if that is what a girlfriend is? A female that has strong feelings for a man?"

"Than that would mean that a man with a similar condition would be the boyfriend?" Victor asked, but it was obvious by Bart's face that he hadn't thought that far ahead.

"Makes sense." Jack said, and continued shoveling down another dish he hadn't fallen on.

"So we are like you?" Meia had hunted down John and found him in the hospital getting real treatment for the gunshot wound.

"No, I am the product of several years forced service to the military, and am from Earth." He said as the doctor swabbed the entry wound with a disinfectant. "You are just a person who the Blue Paexis deemed worth to give it's power to, along with the other three. The people of Earth didn't get to bond a controller with it, and it seemed to favor you four."

"Why can't we use the energy like you can?"

"You can, you just don't know how."

"Than how do I use it?" She wanted to know, but she didn't really know why.

"You just extend your arm, spread your fingers, and envision what you want it to do." He showed her as explained, and a lance of purple energy shot into the wall, and spread across it, then vanished, leaving no paint behind. "If you want, I'll take all of you down to the holo-training room and show you how. Just come with me to my room, because you are new with the energy, everything it touches will be damaged, including your own body. I've got a rather generous supply of the metal that is undamaged by Paexis energy, and I will make you each a set of gloves that you can wield the energy with." She nodded, and followed him through the ship. They met John outside his room, and seeing Meia with Jack, started questioning them.

"What are you two up to?" He said kindly, but there was a worried sound in the back of his voice. Meia grew uneasy, and excuse began flashing through her mind.

"Meia here is a controller. I am going to make her a set of gloves, and teach her to use her power, along with Hibiki, Dita, and Jura. Wanna come along?" Jack's voice was level, and even though John could keep his thoughts from showing in his eyes, he wasn't able to keep the suspicion out know. John smiled, and his eyes went back to their normal, unreadable state, his mind eased.

"Sure, I've always wanted to see how you make some of that stuff you make."

A half-hour later, Meia walked out, a pair of chain-mesh, white gloves, with small emeralds and rubies dotting it, for a rare look of flashiness that she had afforded herself. She went off, hand in hand with John, to go tell Jura about this, and have her come for her own pair of special gloves. She excepted this right away, always looking for ways to be the best, most beautiful, of anything to make her seem special. And got to Jack's room about seven minutes after Meia left. She was going to meet them at the holo room in three hours for a lesson on using Paexis energy. Jura burst into the room, dragging Vinn along, and another half-hour later, came out with elegant pair of skin colored gloves, encrusted with small diamonds and pearls. She then went off, also with instruction to meet at the holo room, and to tell Hibiki and Dita to meet him their.

"I fell sorry for Vinn." Jack said, as John returned, and Jura waked past, Vinn following. "I mean Jura is good looking and stuff, but, under that, there's not much else."

"Yeah, but he does seem happy, and he was already good at taking orders." John said, nodding, agreeing with Jack. Jura was good looking, and she wasn't shy about it, and her normal outfit was attention grabbing, to say the least. Dita waked into the room, Hibiki following.

"Can we get this over with?" Hibiki asked roughly, clearly wanting to be somewhere else. Jack nodded and got to work, and an hour later both left, Dita sporting a white silk gloves with a single sapphire on the back of each. Hibiki's were yellow and white, but no gem's adorned the gloves. Jack told them to meet him in the holo room with the rest. After they left, Jack said good bye to John, and went to see if he couldn't get the Power of the blue Paexis.

Jack got to the holo room ten minute's before he told the rest to meet him, but was still the last one to arrive. They all filled into the room, and waited for Jack to tell them what to do. He walled over to a wall, and slid a small disk into a slot. Four male figures flickered into view, and solidified.

"These are what you will be practicing on, because the walls of this room are made of the same metal that is not effected by the Paexis energy. I will show what can be done with enough practice. Before we start." He snapped his fingers and the first figure exploded, showering the room with blood. The other three moved, pulling out lead pipes to use as weapons. The next in line advanced, and jack flung headfirst at him. He grabbed the man's head and flipped over him. Before Jack let go, the man's head exploded with a purple flash, and the body crumpled. The third was lifted of the ground, flung against the wall and then ripped in half. The final one swung a blow at Jack, but he grabbed the pipe, twisted the man's arm behind his back, and turned the pipe into a rod of purple energy. He then drove it through the man's back, and swung it upward, bisecting him. "That is a small example, with enough practice you will be able to use the energy to aid your movement, allowing you to move faster, jump higher and put more strength behind physical attacks." He kicked one of the pipes into his hand, swung his arm sideways, burying the pipe two feet into the wall. He pushed a button, and the carnage vanished, and the scene reset.

By the time they finished, all four were able to kill with a single energy beam, but they still were having trouble. They left and went their separate ways, back to find their men, or just to go get food. The training continued for another two weeks before they needed to get ready to try and recover the red Paexis. The last session before then was devoted to lifting objects with the power.

"Wow Jura, you use that like your used to it." Jack said, after watching her perform the hand movement, which was holding you hand palm up, and then flicking it upward at the wrist. The man she was working on rose into the air, and his skin began to blister. She snapped her hand to the side, and the man flew into the wall with a dull thud. "Just make sure you don't motion for Vinn to rise anymore, after he's done kissing your shoes." This comment made her mad, and she turned and fired a beam of energy at Jack, which he just knocked of its course and into the wall behind him. The captain's voice rang over the intercom as she issued her orders.

"Hibiki and Jura report to the launch bay, we will be entering the magnetic storm as soon as your ready, and Jack, get your gear ready, we'll be ready to launch you about 20 minutes after we enter the storm. They headed of, Jack toward his room, Meia to find John, and Hibiki and Jura to the bay. Dita decide to follow Jack, because she didn't want to get in Hibiki's way while they launched. She walked next to Jack, looking put out. She always was mildly upset when Hibiki combined with someone other than her, and got especially edgy when he was combing with Jura. She saw Jura as a threat to her relation ship with Hibiki, because, after all, Jura was very pretty, and had little discretion.

"What's wrong?" Jack said, catching a glimpse at Dita, noticing her cheery dispassion missing.

"I just don't like it when Mr. Alien spends time with Jura." She sighed, as Jack opened his door, and she followed him in.

"Why is that?" he said, as he opened a cabinet, to reveal several large guns and small boxes of assorted ammunition.

"I don't know, I just get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach." She replied timidly, staring at the firepower in the cabinet.

"Are you jealous because he is spending time with another girl?" Jack said, pulling down his favorite assault rifle, and grabbing an extended barrel that could be screwed on.

"well, maybe…" Dita said, staring at the floor.

"Is it because you see Jura as older and with less inhibition than yourself so your worried she might make a move on him?" He sad, grabbing a box of shells that were about 11 inches long. Dita was a bit shocked, because he had guessed her exact feelings. She just sat without saying anything, so jack went on. "You got nothing to worry about. For one, that boy is likes you allot, even if he won't admit it. And for another, form what Vinn says, she likes him, even if it's just because he'll do anything she asks him to." He said kindly, grabbing a large scope from the top shelf. Dita just stared at the floor, wallowing in self-doubt. Jack just sighed, familiar with the Self-doubt and thoughts of inferiority that played across her face. He sat on the bed next to her and patted her on the back. "Look, if you worried, go and show him you're you'll be waiting for him when he gets back, and that will show him that you are confident in yourself, and he will like that, because he's the kind of guy who want's a confidant person by his side." He said, as comforting as he could.

"You really think so?" she said, looking into Jack's eyes.

"Yeah, and it might not hurt to promise him some food upon his return, because nothing keep's a man's spirit's high like the thought of a nice hot meal waiting for them." He said. Dita's eyes lit up.

"Thank you." She said, and gave him a small hug. And, just to prove that the universe was stacked against Jack, Barnette happened to open the door on the scene. Dita broke off, and rushed out the door, leaving Barnette staring at jack with a mixture of thought work through her face.

"Hi Barnette." He said with a smile as he stood. She just continued to stare at him with a confused look as he picked up the assault rifle, and stashed it in his cloak.

"I've noticed you've been spending allot of time with her lately." She said accusingly.

"Yeah, I have." He said, realizing what she was thinking, and playing off it, as he opened a drawer in the cabinet. "Her, Meia, Jura, and Hibiki." But Barnette wasn't going to let that pass.

"I didn't see them just know!" she said, her voice rising slightly.

"Because the weren't here at that very moment." He said, his voice the same as ever.

"Well, it sure looked like you were enjoying your self!" She said, her voice rising more. Jack stopped pulling explosive charges out of the drawer, and turned to face Barnette.

"Are you jealous?" he said in mock surprise.

"N…No, of course not!" She said, turning away as her cheeks tinged with pink. She started to walk away, but was stopped as a metal gauntlet rested on her shoulder.

"Come sit down." He said, making it clear that he wasn't asking. She sat on the bed, and looked at the floor, and Jack sat next to her. She didn't look up as he slid his arm around her shoulders. "I bet you'd like to know what that was about." She didn't look up, but simply nodded. "Dita was just a little bummed that Hibiki was going of for some alone time with Jura. She feels a little bit inferior to her, and I gave her some advice." Barnette looked up slightly.

"Then what was the hug all about." She said bitterly.

"I just told gave her a couple of tips, and made her feel good about herself." Barnette looked into his face and he suspicions vanished a bit.

"Ok, but I'm going to ask her, and if I don't like her explanation, your really going to get it." She said, and jack smiled.

"Looking forward to it." He said, and the intercom came on.

"Jack, please report to the bay, we will be launching you shortly." He stood, and so did Barnette. He walked over, finished stuffing explosives into his cloak and walked close to Barnette. The just stared at each other for a few seconds, and than Jack made his move. He move his face in, and wrapped his arms around Barnette's back, pulling her closer, and gave her a nice, long kiss. After a while he let go, and Barnette was shocked.

"Wh…what was… was that for?" She stammered.

"I just figured that since there's a good chance that I won't be coming back in one piece, that I'd give you something good to remember me by." He said, with a wide smile. Barnette grabbed him, and gave him a similar kiss. This time, Jack was shocked, because it was the last reaction he would have thought possible. She just grinned slyly.

"Well, then consider that incentive to come back then." And she walked out of the room.

Jack walked into the bay, and for the first time saw what his new Vanguard, altered by the Paexis, looked like. It was mostly the same, except that two large spikes extended from above the engines, as well as a series of small spikes on the fists. Fins extended backwards from the side of the head. He hopped in, and fired it up. He was cycled through the air lock, and flew out into the protective shield provided by Vandread Jura. He left the field, and then the storm. He headed to the orange planet directly in front of him, shifting most of his mind from Barnette, to the task at hand.

The computers in the sensor station picked up a contact as it emerged from the magnetic storm. Data scrolled next to the image of the black and purple Vanguard.

"It say's it's one of ours sir. What should we do?" A man said.

"Mark were it came out of the storm at, and run a scan that eliminates the interference from the magnetism." Another man said, than pointed at a different man. "Call general Horn, and tell him that his protégé has returned, and by the look of his craft, he succeeded with his mission.

Well, the end of chapter 13. My MSN won't let me reply to any messages, but still send me stuff if you want, I like the advice. I also have MSN and yahoo messenger, so email me your screen names, or however it works, and I can chat that way. Hope you enjoyed.


	14. Life to Die For

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

I am just pushing through these now, and I am working hard. Thanks to everyone who reads these, and the reviews, and tell me what you don't like, and I'll see if I can't accommodate you.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, and if you hear the voice's, your already half way there.

**#14: A life to Die for**

Jack's Vanguard touched down on the barren land, dust billowing away from the exhaust. He landed on the perimeter of Fort Imperial, the military base where he had spent most of his life. He hopped down, and locked his Van down, so that nothing short of a tank round would be able to get in. He couldn't have his way out moved, could he? He approached the gate, where a heavily armed escort of 10 men stood waiting.

"Welcome home, General Horn is expecting you. Please follow us." Jack gave a loud snort when the man had used the word home, but he ignored it and walked into the base, the other nine forming around Jack. He was a mostly secret weapon, so this treatment was to be expected. He was lead to the General's office, and was told to enter. He walked in, and found the General in his comfortable and high backed chair. This was his mentor and head trainer for the whole of his military career.

"Welcome back, Jack." Horn said with a small grin. "I trust you bring good news for me?"

"I am afraid not sir." Jack said, and astonishment struck the Generals face. "My mission was a failure." Horn ran a hand through his blonde hair; this was the first time Jack had ever said that.

"What happened? You will have no need to write a report, as this is a normal op for you. But I still need to know. Jack sighed, and began.

"I successfully boarded the craft, and mingled with the crewmates. I managed to get the Paexis off of the ship shortly after December 25." He had chosen not to say Christmas, because the men of Tarrak knew not what it was, and he did not want to draw suspicion from his Commanding Officer, not yet, anyway. "They were more powerful than was expected, and managed to inflict a fatal blow to my Vanguard in the process of completing my final objective. I was knocked unconscious during the blow, but my preservation instincts helped put a barrier around so I would not die in the vacuum. They had four controllers on board, and they overwhelmed me." The general looked surprised at this.

"They have four Paexises?" He asked sternly.

"No, they only had one, but it had chose four as its controllers."

"Then what happened?"

They nursed me back to health, and dropped me off here."

"Are they still in the area?"

"Yes, they should be, your sensor stations should have picked them up by now." After he finished that sentence the phone started ringing. Horn picked it up, and listened for a minute.

"Good, send to ships to the area, and wait till I give the order, I want that craft captured." He hung up the phone, and turned to Jack. "Very good, we may get them yet."

"What the hell is he doing?" Hibiki shouted, watching the video feed from the cockpit of Vandread Jura.

"He's betraying us again?" Jura yelled, watching next to Hibiki.

"Just hold position, and keep the shield up, we're going to show the military how grateful me are for placing their little pet in our care." B.C.'s voice came over the intercom, cold and slightly frightening. She switched it off, and then opened a link to Bart. "Ready the cannon's, and fire on my mark."

"Aye, Aye commander!" He said, and got ready, than turned his attention back to Jack's video feed.

"You know your ship's don't have a chance in beating them, right." Jack said, with a smirk.

"I know, but that's were you come in." Horn hit a button on a small remote he kept in his pocket. "Your mission is to go up and Retrieve the Blue Paexis while my ship's distract them." Jack's demeanor change, and his voice lost the crisp military tone, and was replaced not by the insane voice that should have risen, but his normal, casual voice.

"No can do, Rufus, I just got here, and I want to stay a little longer." This made Horn mad, he was addressed by this man in front of him, not as if a higher officer, but as an equal. He pulled the remote out, pointed at Jack, and pushed the button again.

"You will go and do what I say." He said, more force in his voice.

"What is that for?" Jack said, with a serene smile. "Could it be for this?" He flicked a small metal thing onto Horn's desk. It was the implant in the base of his skull. "I am just wondering why I should do what you want?"

"Because I am your Commanding Officer, and that is what I say to do."

Ok, since you put it that way, I quit."

"You can't quit, I own you. And you like what you do."

"Yes, but I can get everything you offered, and more, with the pirates." The phone rang again, and horn answered, and listened for a minute.

"Send more ships, and cripple the ship, do not destroy it." He hung up the phone, and sighed, returning his attention to Jack. "Looks like your friends aren't the type to just give in, but we will overwhelm them, and capture it ourselves. What is it that you plan to do now?"

"That is a very good question, and I've been thinking about it for a long time. Originally, I figured that if I failed and they took me back, I would try to sell them to you for my freedom. But I realized that you would let me go. So then I after I left the first time, that I would just come back, and report my failure, and you'd just send me back out, so I crossed that out as a possibility. Then, after I blew myself up, I figured I come and destroy this whole base. But then I learned to appreciate people, so I figured I kill you and call it a day." Jack explained, and at this point Horn interupted.

"So you plan to kill me then?" He said with a sly smile.

"No, I'm not finished." Jack shot back, annoyed as his story was interrupted. "You see, now I am just going to take the red Paexis from you, and be on my way."

"You know I can't let you do that." Horn said calmly. Jack opened his mouth to reply, but hit the back of his chair, toppling backwards, as several small knives sailed at his head, missing and impacting the door behind him. He landed in a low squat, grabbed the back of his chair, and with a spin, hurled it at where the General sat. The chair hit the wall and shattered, Horn had moved away.

"Your so predictable, Jack." Horn said, as Jack stood with a shrug. Horn ran his finger along where the chair had hit. "You left a little bit of a dent in my wall."

"Sorry, I'll pay for that on the way out." Jack said, in a stern voice.

"How do you expect to beat the man who taught you all that you know about combat?" Horn asked, and rammed his fist together, thumb to thumb. Two finely crafted sword hilts had appeared when the fist connected, and blades emerged as he pulled his fist apart. "But, if you insist on leaving, you will have to take me out of the way first."

"Ok, I you really want to die." Jack swung his arms together across his front, one under the other, and hilts appeared in his hands as they crossed. He quickly swung them the opposite way, and blades sprung forward. His arms were spread apart, and he twirled the swords once, and scythe-like attachments, though smaller and taller appeared at the top of each one.

"That is new." Horn said, though he was unphased by the intimidating devices.

"Yeah, allot has changed since I joined the pirate's." Jack said, as he brought his blades into a better position.

"Is it worth giving up everything for?" Horn said as he moved to the front of his desk.

"Yes, I found something I treasure above anything I have had so far, even my freedom."

"You don't mean that." Horn said with a grin. "I know you will never love anything more than your freedom. Those horrible creatures just corrupted you judgement, and I will have to purge their taint."

"Your wrong!" Jack yelled angrily. "I have found a life I'm willing to die for!" and he lunged. A flash of green light strobbed, the room, as an explosion hit Jack in the chest, and sent him flying into the door behind him, shattering it with his body. He rose, picking up his blade's and lunged again, talking to himself.

"Should have know what he really was," as their swords met.

"Multiple contacts inbound. At least 7 destroyer class vessels, and a slew of single ships." Belvedere Said, eyeing he data screen, and relaying the info to the rest of the bridge.

"Looks like they weren't to happy about us destroying those other two, Bart fire!" The commander yelled. Lances of green-blue energy lashed out and speared the two lead ships, inflicting heavy damage, and destroying a handful of the smaller ships. Bart eyed Jack's video feed, which had been knocked off and lay on the floor, showing the two locked in combat. He kept switching between the fight, and charge bar his ship's weapons. It hit full, and he fired another volley, and finished off the first two he had hit, and another group of single ships. The bar began to refill, and he switched his gaze to the video feed. They were off camera, but an occasional green beam would lash past the screen, and destroyed a large portion of wall. The dreads launched, and began trading fire with the Male ships, with the exception of Jura and Hibiki, who were still holding a shield around the 'Nirvana'. This allowed Bart to take out focus on the larger ships.

Jack brought up an energy barrier and another green energy beam lashed out and impacted, causing a sizable explosion. He got off the ground, and ran from the room. He was bleeding and he was losing the fight. He was mad at himself for not realizing that Horn had been a controller. He had taught Jack how to use his powers, but he had just though he had the knowledge because of his elite status. He dashed down a hall, and into a room. He found the red Paexis, and pointed his palms out, and surrounded it in a blue barrier, and it began to shrink, still to weak to fight back. Jack grabbed it, and stuffed it into his cloak, and ran out, the crackle of weapons fire chasing him.

A destroyer came within weapons range of the 'Nirvana', and the cannon's charge was at zero. The weapons on the destroyer swiveled into the correct trajectory. Each of the several cannons tracking the ship fired. The rounds impacted the ships shield, and they began to fail. They flickered out as the last round hit, and missiles impacted the ship's hull, scaring the surface.

"Ow, damn it!" Bart said, feeling the missile impacts on his skin. He gazed at the charge meter, as it slowly refilled. The turrets on the destroyer swiveled in for another salvo. Bart stared at the charge bar, willing it to go faster, but it was not even half full. He noticed a purple bar, that he could have sworn hadn't been their before. He tapped it with his finger, and a series of explosions dotted along the trenches that the primary cannons occupied. A volley of purple beams lashed out, and tore through space. It was the same thing as the normal cannon, except the color was different. The beams impacted the destroyer, tearing through it, and ripping it in half.

"That was close." Bart said to himself with a sigh, and he realized that each Paexis must add to the power and arsenal of the 'Nirvana'. After the bars refilled, he fired off both, happy with the destruction he had just caused.

Jack rounded a corner of the military base, and came face to face with two soldiers in towering exo-skeletons.

"Hi guys, how are you?" He said, with a hint of desperation in his voice. The voices that replied, were cold, robotic, and both said the same thing.

"Surrender now, and you will be harmed no further."

"Hey, I just picked up a nifty souvenir from the gift shop, and I'll be damned if I'm giong to let you have it." He said back, his nose in the air. The small wrist mounted mini-guns began to twirl, and jack slid under the massive legs of one of them. It stomped it's foot, missing by inches, leaving a small crater. The turned, and bullets chased Jack out the exit. He fired an orb of purple and blue energy that hit together at the same place doubling the usual, singular explosion, and collapsing the entrance in a shower of rubble. That should slow those exo-skeleton losers down for a couple of seconds. He dashed through the gates, as machine guns in sentry towers tracked his progress. His Vanguard's cockpit opened, and he jumped in, sealing the hatch behind, and thrusting off the ground, as bullet's pinged of his hull. His Comm screen flickered to life, and General Horn's face appeared.

"Why have you insisted on this suicidal notion." He said, his personal Vanguard, blue and green, dropped in behind him.

"Well, you see," Jack said, like he was talking to a child. Horn frowned at this disrespect. "I met someone aboard the ship, in who I found some joy left in life. She was intelligent, beautiful, and can put up with my shit." He said with a smile. Lances of purple and blue energy slashed into the another destroyer, shattering the ship into glittering fragments of metal. Jack sped through this, and docked with the "Nirvana'. Horn had been blown of course when the destroyer had exploded. The Airlock door closed, and the ship dove back into the magnetic storm. Jack walked out of the bay, and it closed behind him. He dropped by the Paexis room, and left the Red Paexis in Parfait's care. He than headed for the bridge to report to the captain. He was sore all over, while Horn never landed a single blow with his swords, but still managed to blast the crap out of him with the green energy. Blood oozed from several places across his body, but he had to see the captain, so he would get treated later. He met Barnette half way to the bridge.

"You know," He said, "For an elite soldier, I sure do managed to get my ass kicked allot." Barnette giggled, and he walked on, saying he had to see the captain. Th doors to the bridge slid open with a hiss.

"Hull breach in section 12!" Celtic yelled. "Single unit infiltrated and is now in the main hanger!"

"You," The captain said, pointing at Jack. "Go and take care of that!" A large explosion rocked the 'Nirvana'.

"Engine system damage! We can't move!" Belvedere shouted, fear gripping her voice.

The end, I change my email address, and so I will now be able to reply to anything you write to me. Hope you enjoy.


	15. Oppertunity for a Change

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

We keep driving, it's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, So stop asking!

**#15: Opportunity for a Change**

"Breach sealed. But I'm still picking up a single contact." Belvedere said, staring at her station screen.

"Fine, I'm going, I'm going." Jack said, holding his hands up and backing out the door, after the look he got from the captain. "Man, can't even sit down for a minute…" he was cut of as the door slid shut behind him. The captain sighed, and for a brief moment envied the young, but quickly banished the thought, as another explosion rocked the 'Nirvana'.

Jack began to sprint down the hallways as another explosion shook the deck beneath his feet. Someone ahead of him fell to the deck. He stopped, and she blushed slightly as he grabbed her hand and helped her up.

"Thanks, but what are you doing?" It was one of the Redge crewmembers. Most of his fellow workers had become a tad smitten, enjoying his cunning wit, and friendly attitude. He had never refused to help or offer help to anyone who looked like they might need it.

"Well, there is a minor gas leak, and I thought I might go see if they needed an extra set of hand's." He said, with a small grin. The deck shook again, as if to illustrate his point. "Well, I'll talk to you later." He continued running down the hall. She waved after him, and was a bit envious of Barnette for having found such a good person to be with. He pulled open a door, and was lifted of the ground, and thrown into a wall, falling in a heap to the ground. General horn stood over him.

"Wait just a minute!" Jack said, rising to his feet.

"What?"

We can't do this!"

"Why not?"

"Because, I know exactly what is going to happen. I've seen it a hundred times."

"What?"

"It goes like this, you're going to beat me to within an inch of my life, and are going to be gloating, about to deliver the final blow, then something magical with happen. And someone with go on about how love always wins, and that kind of crap, then you'll die, saying something like 'I can never be defeated' and then you get a happy ending, and the credits roll." General Horn just stared at Jack, confusion in his face. "It's one of the most used plot's ever! It's in nine out of 10 of those movies I got from the colonization era." Horn sighed, and drew his sword. "Fine, if you insist on doing this, fine." Jack said, drawing his swords, looking disappointed at having to do this. He kept talking as the swords clashed, the lights flickering. "Something is going to happen, and I'm going to say something noble, right before you deliver a devastating blow. Then the magic thing will happen, happy ending, then everything gets boring and everyone loses interest." Horn blasted him into the wall, and he had a bit of trouble getting up. After he stood, he was blasted against the wall again, and he didn't get up. A trail of blood ran down the wall, where he hit, and to where he lay, crumpled in a heap. A door slid open next to horn and he whipped out a pistol and pointed it at the person standing there. There was less that a foot between the gun's tip, and the other person's chest. And, just to prove that the universe really did hate Jack, that person happened to be Barnette. Jack jumped up in front of Barnette, the pistol's mouth actually touching his chest inside of the cloak. Horn fired, and he couldn't miss at this range. The bullet passed through Jacks sternum, and exited about an inch from Barnette. He collapsed again, a pool of blood forming underneath him.

"I told you." Jack said, as Horn started laughing. Barnette looked down at Jack, like she was expecting his collapse, and remark, like it was a every day occurrence. She simply unclipped the silver pistol, and shot Horn in the head while he wasn't paying attention.

"What the fu…" Jack goggled up at her, trailing off.

"I know, it is anti-climactic, but I heard what you said about a cheesy ending, so I though I'd do something about it." She smiled, steeped on him, walked across the room, and left.

"Damn…" He said, getting up, and hobbling toward the medical wing. He wasn't going to admit it out loud, but he was impressed at how she had finished the fight, and then walked out, unfazed. He got a weird feeling when she had done it, and was a good feeling. The word 'turn on' floated up out of somewhere in his sub-conscience, though he didn't what it meant. He slid the medical door open, waved to Duero, who was working on one of the dread pilots, climbed into his usual bed, and passed out.

Barnette arrived on the bridge, and started talking to the captain.

"I have taken care of the intruder, and I think Jack went to go see Duero." She said, the captain nodded, and Barnette left to go back to her room. She was deep in thought the whole time. Jack was always getting hurt lately. Before Christmas, he never got a scratch on him, but literally the next day, got the crap kicked out of him by Hibiki, Dita, Jura and Meia, with her help. Then he blew himself up. Then this Horn guy beat the hell out of him, and he took a bullet …for… her! He had been off since she had gotten close to him. Was she bad for him? She loved him, but she hadn't really been that nice to him lately. After he had just gotten shot, she stepped on him and walked out without even saying thanks. She hadn't even thought about it. Was she killing him? She felt a grip of sadness grab onto her as she stepped into her room and laid on the bed, she rolled around for a while, thinking hard and making herself. One thought struck he and made her very uncomfortable. "This is why I despised me in the first place, they just complicate everything, and are one big pain in the ass." This brought up another string of thoughts. Did she still hate men? If she did, why was she in a relationship with one? Did she feel bad about this because she thought was hurting him, or because, deep down, she still hated men, and was mad for being in a relationship with one? She finally drifted of into a fitful sleep.

Jack had been treated, and was laying in the bed in the hospital, drifting of to sleep, as his thoughts were still on Barnette and the way she had almost lazily gunned down a foe he couldn't defeat himself.

Sorry for another short one, but I been thinking about doing another fic, like that Girls vs. boys show on that Canadian channel, but with some of the Vandread characters, and a few of my own. It would be a funny on, laden with swear words, and stuff I couldn't put in this one. e-mail me and tell me if you think I should!


	16. Why do you do this?

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Howdy hey hey hey. Chapter 16!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, Catch the ball!

**#16: Why do you do this?**

Meia was sitting at a table in the mess hall with John, and were just chatting. Celtic was walking with Bart, who had just been released from the medical ward, several small scratches and bruises dotting his body from the battle above Tarrak. He had his arm wrapped around her and hers him. Vinn and Jura were against a wall in the mess hall, dosing off after having a little too much to drink. Victor and Belvedere were on the bridge, alone, watching the stars on the main screen. Dita and Hibiki had taken a page out of Jura's book, and were sitting in the bay, making-out. Hibiki had opened up allot to Dita lately, and enjoyed her company allot more than being alone now. The other men were off doing various things with the girls they had found favor with. Jack sat alone on a bench in the environmental room, asleep. Barnette walked in, and sat next to him, though he didn't wake up. She smiled and snuggled up next to him, her head on his shoulder. She was half asleep when she felt a clod hand grasp he shoulder. She jumped almost a foot of the bench.

"Nice to see you, to." He said sleepily. She smiled at him. Why does he have to do that, making everything a joke? It was kinda cute. She sighed.

"No thanks, I'll have number three." He said, sleeping again. She snuggled up to him again, this time with his arm already around her, and fell asleep. She felt more peaceful than she had in quite a while.

Jack was sitting at a little wooden table, staring into a pair of purple eyes. The thing that caught him by surprise was that they were not Barnette's. He was looking at a little girl of about six or seven. She was basically, a small version of Barnette. She had a little set of china, and a small plate of cookies. A pair of arms encircled his neck, and he looked up at their owner. This time, it was Barnette, but something was different. Slight creases lined her face, and her eyes had lost some of the shine of youth, but were lit with a kind of happiness that he had never seen before. He green hair was longer now, reaching down to rest between her shoulder blades.

Jack woke up with a start, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the pitch darkness. He didn't remember where he was, or why he was sitting up. He finally noticed the weight on his side, and realized he didn't know what that was either. His mind was reeling from the strange dream he had just had. What was that? Who was the small child? Why did this small thing disturb him enough to wake him up? After a few minutes, he realized why the dream had gotten to him. It wasn't like his normal dreams. Not dark, depicting horrible deaths of him or his friends, or his own battle field experiences. It was sort of like the ones where he had gotten a bomb with more than 6-Megaton yield, everything was happy and hopeful. His eyes adjusted and he could finally see the clock, 2:00 in the morning. He looked over, and saw Barnette asleep on his shoulder, his arm wrapped around her. His arm was asleep, and it tingled like hell. He decided to go back to sleep, he didn't need to wake her up yet, he thought it was rude to wake her up if it wasn't necessary. He laid his head back against the bench's headrest, and nodded off again.

Barnette woke up to see Paiway running off, camera in one hand, and frog puppet in the other. It was still only 5:30 in the morning. Ugh, Paiway would have this scene spread around the ship in no time. She looked over at Jack, still asleep, she took his arm off her, and stood up, stretching.

"You can't imagine how good a view your giving me right now." Jack said, and Barnette jumped a little. She realized what he had meant, and smacked him across the face. "I love you too." He said, also standing, a flexing his arm. "Arms been asleep for about three and a half hours now." He said, yawning. She smiled at him and gave him a hug. "Well, you're in a good mood this morning."

"Yes, well you don't often stick around long enough for me to spend this much time you." Barnette said casually.

"Well don't get used to it, I'll probably try to sacrifice myself for the common good again." He said, jokingly.

"I think you should stick around for a while this time." She said, still embracing him. A light flashed nearby, and she sighed. Paiway had decided to double back and check things out again, because there wasn't much else going on this early in the morning. Mainly because Parfait and Duero had locked the door so they could have some alone time. The three people were still awake, Duero and Paiway had been attending to the injured from the assault on Tarrak, and Parfait was expediting repairs with her crew.

"So how long you think it will be before everyone knows about us sleeping together." Barnette said, looking at the ground.

"Well, if most of the people get up by 7:00, and the last one by 8:05, I'd give it till, oh, I don't know, about 8:09." He said, also holding onto Barnette.

"How you doing? You got beat pretty bad back there." She said, changing the subject.

"Well, my colon is acting up, and when I sneeze, my eye's loose focus, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before." He said, in his usual joking manner.

"No, seriously." She said forcefully, not looking up, her head buried in his chest.

"I am!" He said, faking being hurt in a feminine voice.

"Really!" She said, even more forcefully, not bringing her head up. He sighed.

"It's nothing, just a few scratches and bruises. Besides, I stopped coughing up blood an hour ago. Don't worry about me, I'm as fine as I ever was." He said softly, and rubbing her back. "Of course, I've never really been the epitome of normalcy, have I?" Barnette looked up, finally meeting his eyes, tears welling in her eyes.

"How can you just brush everything off like it's nothing? Just look away, and joke?" She was upset, and the more she thought about it, the more upset she got. "How do you do it? You've done so much, and been nearly killed, maimed, smashed and exploded so many times since… since…" She was having trouble finishing her sentence. She was afraid that if she said it, that he would confirm her fears, and it would all be over. He sat down with her on the bench, still holding her. She was holding back the tears, she had used so many over the past month, and had been stretched to the emotional breaking point often. "Since… you and I… got… to… to… together…" She dropped her gaze to her lap, and buried her face back into his chest. Her it came, she though, and found she was unable to stop herself. "I think I'm the reason you keep getting hurt, and it really bothers me." Her muffled voice came. Jack had to struggle to keep himself from laughing. Stupid girl, getting all worked up over nothing. He decided not to joke to much, he had put her through enough over the past month, and he wasn't going to heap more stress on her that right that minute.

"You know, I think your right." He said, seriousness in his voice she had never heard before. She knew he wasn't kidding this time, and she found it even harder to hold back the tears. "I do just brush everything off as if it's nothing." She wasn't expecting this, and a brief flare of anger spiked through he mind. "I seen to much to take life seriously anymore, and there's just no point in it."

"But you never get mad at anything!" she said, her voice still muffled.

"Like I said, there's no point, it just makes other people mad, and it just isn't worth it. Allot of things are better when you just don't take them seriously." Barnette was angry with him justifying that with a perfectly reasonable explanation. "As for you being the reason for my recent bit of bad personal management, it is your fault in a certain ways." This is what she feared, and the misery broke through her barrier, and the tears leaked down her face. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."

The end! Hope you like, sorry if you don't like my weak cliff hangers, but if I don't, I'd never be done, and I'd never update, so you'll just have to bear with me. Also, read my new fic, Vans vs. Dreads, under the Mature rating, for gratuitous language!


	17. Enough is enough

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Ran out of witty things to say. Chapter 17!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, The broccoli must die!

**#17: Enough is Enough**

"Wait! Barnette! Don't leave! I… damn it." Jack said, as Barnette dashed off. "Man, women are so weird." He added with a sigh. He sat for a few minutes, contemplating what to do. He decided he was going to go see her. I'm a man damn it! I'm the one who needs to take action. He walked out of the environmental area, and into the mess hall, which was basically empty. The morning crew was starting to get everything going for the breakfast rush. He poured himself a cup of coffee, then another, and walked off again, toward the females living quarters. He reached the hallway to the girl's rooms, and realized that he didn't know which room was Barnette's. He remembered he still had the ships map in his data-pad, and after a few minutes of comparing, located the room. He knocked gently, the sound louder than he would have liked, due to his metal gauntlets.

"Go away!" She called out, sound muffled by the door.

"No, I think I'll stay, I need to talk to you. Can I come in?" He called back.

"No!" it was evident she was still sobbing by the way she was choking on the word as she said them.

"Ok, I'm coming in." He sighed, and grabbed the recessed grove and pulled. The door was locked, but that wasn't going to let that stop him. A small flash of purple light, the lock released, and the door slid open. He walked in, and the door slid shut behind him, sealing him into the darkness.

"Leave me alone." She said, sitting on her bed, back to him.

"Barnette, I'm not leaving until you let me talk to you." He said, trying not to sound threatening, but comforting. "Here, take this." He handed her the spare cup of coffee. "Thought your throat might be a little dry the way you were snoring last night." He ducked, expecting the coffee to come flying at his head. To his surprise, she just glared at him. "What?"

"Why can't you just be serious for once? I think your really going tell me if you think it's my fault that you keep getting hurt, and you just feed me a smart ass remark!" She said the last part a bit louder, and more angrily.

"What? I was being serious! I wouldn't have it any other way! Is this all you're upset about?" He said. She nodded, because, at the moment, that was all she was upset about.

"I wanted you honest opinion, not just another smart ass remark." She said, sipping her coffee.

"Well, I was being serious. Since I've been with you, I've been happier than I've ever been! If it weren't for you, I'd still be a tool of the military! You distracted me so the other's take me out, you were the reason I came back, and you killed the General!" He explained. She just shook her head.

"I got you stabbed, shot, exploded, and beaten." She said, ticking them off on her fingers.

"Oh, yeah, but that doesn't matter." He said, waving his hand dismissively. She wasn't going to except that, even though she wanted to.

"How can you say that? I've done damage to you myself to!"

"Well, I gave you plenty of reason to, besides there's no permanent damage, except what you're doing to yourself now."

"What do you mean?" She was struggling not to burst into tears again.

"You're making a big deal out of nothing. You're tearing yourself apart inside. If anything that has happened hurts me at all, it is that." She starred at him in disbelief. "My god! That is the corniest I think I've ever said! I don't know how I could top that one." Barnette just continued staring at him. "What? I love you, and I stand by it, and there's nothing you can do about that! Hey, I just topped it!" He said, and was relived when a small smile spread across her face.

"But what if you keep getting hurt because of me?" She asked timidly.

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to keep getting better." He said, without any resentment in his voice.

"Thanks…" she leaned in and gave him a small kiss. 'I needed that."

"I know, you're all bitchy when you're emotional. I couldn't stand it much longer." He returned the kiss, and took off, glad that she took the joke, instead of being offended as she usually was. He settled himself at a table in the mess hall, put his head in his arms, and went back to sleep his mind at ease.

"Can you go over it again? I just can't get it to work!" Dita cried, as he fist slamming into the crate in front of her, leaving no visible damage.

"What? This is my first day, and I can do it just fine!" John said slamming his fist into the crate, which shattered into splinters.

"Hey, shut up and leave her alone!" Hibiki yelled. He had become very defensive when he found something he didn't like said to her. He was still adjusting to being a couple, going from one extreme to another. Before he had avoided being around Dita as often as he could, and couldn't care less about how she felt, but now, he was around her all the time, and got very defensive when she was insulted. This conflict was harbored as Jack was teaching the others how to use their powers. John had been added to the class, as Jack had made John the new red controller, being his Best, and first friend, had been the first on the list to get it. Today he was showing them how to focus their energies into their fists, effectively augmenting their strength, or putting explosive force into their knuckles. Right now, they were practicing the explosive force technique. John flexed his gloved fingers menacingly at Hibiki, as if challenging him to do something.

"Stop it!" Meia said, smacking John in the back of his head.

"Aww… but Meia, I wasn't going to hurt him to bad, just something to keep him occupied for a while." He whined, and Meia smacked him again.

"Ok, what part are you having trouble with?" Jack said, a bit to friendly for Hibiki's liking.

"What are you doing?" He yelled.

"Trying to help Dita." He said bluntly, with an annoyed wave of his hand, which knocked Hibiki on his ass. He decided to shut up, and let Jack help her out.

"I just can't get the energy to stay long enough to shatter the box!" she said exasperatedly.

"You have to focus all your attention into it at first, concentrate all you energy into it, and then strike!" He struck the box in front of him, and it explodes in a burst of purple light, nothing was left. "That is what you can do with just a smidgen of effort when you become adept with your powers." He walked behind Dita, and grabbed onto her to help guide her actions. Hibiki jumped up at this, but was knocked back to the ground, and held there, though it hadn't appeared that jack had moved. Jack curled her hand into a fist, and she screwed up her eyes. Blue energy crackled across her knuckles, and she slammed the fist down into the crate. It shattered, but not as fully as anyone else's did. "There you go, that's a start, now grab another crate and keep trying." He walked to the front of the room, his finger twitched, and Hibiki could stand up again. He ran over and embraced Dita, and then got to work. Dita was still unable to break the crate, but kept at it.

"You know, if I could do that, I'd use your head instead of a crate." Jack turned around, and saw Barnette leaning in the doorway.

"Yeah? Well if you could do that, you wouldn't be able to smash and orange, much less my head." He said, casting a smile at the beautiful girl. She wiped it off with a smack across the face. "So fiery, I love it!" They laughed. "So, what color you want? Yellow, orange, or green?"

What do you mean?" She asked, confused.

"Well, there are three more Paexis out there, and I'd figure you could I'd let you have the power of one."

"Oh." She though for a minute. "Who else is going to get one?"

"Vinn, he's been with me for almost as long as John, and I was going to see if Parfait wanted the other, cause it would probably be helpful for working with the Paexises. And I thought you might like the other, since I love you so much." He gave her a stupid grin.

"Oh, then can I have the green one than?"

"No problem. Finally you have something that matched with your wardrobe." She smacked him a few more times, then left.

"Why do you let her hit you like that?" Jura asked, missing the box, and slamming her fist into the floor. "Ow!"

"Because I love her, and it makes her happy." He stated. "Now pay attention to what you're doing!"

A half-hour later, he finished the lesson.

"Ok, so if you do that, it will augment your strength, so you can lift more, or other stuff like that. You're all progressing faster than I did, so I'm guessing that after a few more days of work, you will probably be able to manifest harmless energy. I have to say I'm astounded, but you are in contact with the Paexis you're allied with, so that could have something to do with it. Tomorrow, I'll show you how to make things burst into flames." They all filed off, and with a wave of his hand, all the shards of wood in the room floated up. He separated the piles with another wave, and snapped his fingers once. All three piles burst into different colored flames, red, blue, and purple. He walked out of the room, to go meet Barnette for lunch.

"With the red Paexis installed, we have more power, and more offensive capabilities! Plus there are strange synergetic effects from having the Paexises together in one place. I don't know much, but the shields are much more resilient than they were, plus a fourth, fifth, and sixth layer has been added!" Parfait reported gleefully from the main engineering room. She had finished installing the red Paexis an hour ago, and had been studying the effects on he system since them. Jacks head appeared on the screen.

"It might be safe to say that the red Paexis will offer up the most offensive capabilities, so the weapons from will be the strongest. The blue offers up the defensive portion, hence the first three shield layers. The purple, being a mix of blue and red, has a mix of both offence and defense." Jack did know more about the Paexis than anyone else on the ship, so his input was nice to have.

"Yes, very good, we will keep trying to find the information containing the location of earth. And continue doing what us pirates do, and, I figure Earth is getting pretty tired of us beating anything they throw at us, so they're likely to throw their remaining capitol ships at us, so be ready to fight." The captain had made that announcement over the intercom, and the 'Nirvana's' engines flared, and it flew off toward where they had defeated the Purple fleet.

The end to chapter 17.


	18. Unexpected encounter

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Still out of witty things to say. Chapter 18!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, So I stop my struggling!

**#18: Unexpected Encounter**

"Incoming fire from all directions! They where hiding in the asteroid field!" Belvedere Called as the weapons fire impacted on the shields. "Estimating at least four class 2 Warships, and no fewer than 12 squadrons of smaller craft."

"Who are they?" The captain said, more calmly than the situation merited.

"Unknown, they are neither Tarrak, Majale, or any other planet's fleet that we have encountered.

"We're being hailed!" Ezra said from her station.

"Patch it through!" The captain said, and a Man's face appeared on the screen.

"Greetings, Miss Vivan." He said.

"Who might you be?" She snapped back.

"I am not surprised that you do not know us, we are not nearly as decorated pirates as yourself. We are outcast from the planate Casire, and we have come to relive you of your Paexis." He gave a bow. A lance of emerald energy shot from the bow of the largest ship, pierced their shields, and impacted near the rear of the 'Nirvana'. A few seconds later, one of the girls made a report.

"Access to the main dread platform has been lost! We can't launch our dreads!"

"A nice play, I see you to have a Paexis, but I'm afraid your information is a bit outdated, Mr…"

"Wallace, Timothy Wallace."

"We are now in possession of three Paexises." She gave a smile to the man, but no fear touched his face.

"I am not surprised, for the most well known pirates in this sector, I'd be disappointed if you didn't have at least two by now. I will say it will be nice to add three more to our stock. It is getting a little lonely with only the Green one." A smirk played across his face and the link snapped off.

"All available ships launch, defend this ship!" Jacks face appeared now.

"Permission to sit this one out, I want to help get the Dread platform back online."

"Ok, but hurry up, we need as many people out there as possible!" he snapped off his link.

"Come on Dita, let's take these fools!" Hibiki yelled, as the two combined. The twin cannons flipped onto the shoulders, and they fired into the center formation of the enemy. The scattered, but quite a few went up in puffs of fire and smoke, as the lethal energy swept through. Meia and Jura where able to launch, as were the Vanguards, and they were exchanging fire as well.

"Let's just see what this thing can do." Bart said, from inside the navigation sphere. He was bleeding a little above the hip, from when the energy blast hit the Dread platform. He wasn't going to tell anyone, but he was always a bit happy when he received a few injuries, because it seemed that Celtic paid even more attention to him. He wasn't going to get hurt on purpose, that was just stupid, but if it was unavoidable, he wouldn't complain. He fingered the red firing control, and several options appeared. He scanned the list, all different forms of attacks. He found the one he was looking for, selected it, and fired. It was the same as the one that the Blue one fired, but there were easily four times the number. The ruby light swept through the battlefield, and when the light faded, there wasn't much left of the enemy fleet. Two of the four massive ships remained, as well as about four squadrons of single fighters. One of the warships was surrounded in a green shield. Bart fired the other two weapon systems, obliterating all but the ship with the green shield. He steered the ship to the remaining one. Another lance of emerald shot from the ship, and speared the 'Nirvana' through the central sections, and explosions chained through it. Bart grasped his stomach with both hands, blood welling from the hole in it.

"Ow damn it!" He said, he brought up one hand, and taped on the red Energy control again. His hand was shaking, and he accidentally tapped the other two as well. All three popped up, all showing different attacks, the blue list shortest, red longest and purple somewhere in the middle. a new box appeared, reading combo attack. He pushed it, just to see what would happen. A thick single ray of red energy shot from the central section, and a purple and blue from either arm. The purple and blue swirled around the red column as it speeds through space. It impacted on the green shields, and exploded, shattering several nearby asteroids from the force. The ship when spinning and collided with an asteroid, getting stuck to the surface. The 'Nirvana" hovered over the battered ship, and attached the translucent loading tube. Several figures dropped through the tube, and proceeded to secure the immediate area inside. The usual boarding party walked through the corridors of the ship, noting that they where deserted. They where the Vanguard pilots that had always handled boarding, plus Meia, Dita Jura, and Hibiki, who had landed on another part of the ship with their craft, and proceeded to help take out any resistance. They found the Paexis room and found Jack already inside, detaching the green tendrils from the ship. The moved on, so that they could go take the bridge, witch, as always, was where anyone who could was hiding. It took a good fifteen minutes to capture the bridge, and after "interrogating" the occupants half to death. They gained much knowledge from the captain, Wallace. They where a group of pirates from Casire, hired to capture the Blue Paexis from the 'Nirvana'. They couldn't find out who had hired them, so they launched them out of their escape pods, and pillage everything that wasn't nailed down. The other pirates had been given a partial amount of pay before hand, so that to was added to the 'Nirvana's' wealth. They left detonated the ship, and left, heading for area where they had last seen the harvest. Bart set the auto pilot, and jumped out of the navigation sphere, but couldn't land it. He fell forward onto his face.

"What happened?" Celtic cried when she saw that the back of his uniform was soaked in blood.

"I Just took a small blast in the stomach, nothing I can't handle." He said, trying to be impressive and macho.

"But your back is bleeding! And your hip!" Bart felt the back of his uniform, to find that it was blood soaked as well.

"I think I'm going to go see the doctor now." Bart said, and hobbled off, Celtic joining him after she finished what she was doing, grabbing his arm, and helping him to walk, so they could get to Duero faster. The doctor examined his wound.

"Both wounds go all the way his body, and are not that serious." Duero was explaining to Celtic, because Bart had passed out. Jack sat near by, also listening, because while extracting the green Paexis, one of its tentacles broke free, and smacked him around pretty good. "He is lucky that the one through the torso missed his vital organs, or he'd already be dead. I might have something to do with the Paexises being where the shot hit, and protecting themselves saved him too. The problem is he's lost to much blood, as it has been flowing freely from his hip and stomach for quite some time. I don't have a transfusion ready, so there is nothing I can do." This is the worst part of the job, He though, as he waited for Celtic to under stand what he ment. Informing someone that someone they loved was going to die. You could see the comprehension click in Celtic's mind. Tears welled up.

"Take some of mine!" She said, on the verge of hysterics. Here was another part he hated, convincing them that there was nothing they could do either.

"I can, your blood types don't match." He said, trying to keep her calm, and then cut off her next thought. "And even if I could find someone with the right blood type, and they agreed to donate it, by the time I would be able to give it to him, it would be to late." Celtic ran out of the room crying, as a wave of hopeless washed over her.

"Damn, Doc, you're almost as good at making 'em cry as I am!" Jack said with mock astonishment. Duero cast a very evil look at him. "Wow, if looks could kill. You done with me yet?" He said, as if nothing interesting was happening, than catching Duero's look again, added, "medically speaking?" He nodded, and Jack walked toward him. 'Oh yeah, Before I forget, I got something for you." Jack reached into his cloak, and puled out a small syringe filled with glowing green liquid, and a nearly empty tube. "Give this to him, it's my last one. I gave you enough to fix him, and a sample to analyze, to see if you can't make some more."

"What is it?" Duero said, examining the syringe skeptically.

"It's a blood growth supplement. Speed's up blood growth, so that if you're low and about to die from loss of blood, you'll be back up and about in about 20 minutes. Just don't tell anyone I gave it to you, cause I don't got no more, just say you found it, and are working on making more." He walked out of the room, and Duero injected the syringe into Bart's left arm artery, because it was the easiest way to get things to the heart. He sat and waited, and after 15 minute's Bart woke up, yawning. He got up, stretched, thanked Duero for his care, and left. He saw Celtic walking down one of the halls. He called out to her, she turned, saw him, turned white, and then passed out, hitting the deck with a thud. He rushed over, picked her up, and carried her to the hospital. "Women are so weird!"

After they reached the hospital, and Celtic awoke, Duero explained what had happened. Celtic grabbed Bart's arm, and dragged him off to god knows where for some quality time. They ran past Jack and Barnette, who were taking a stroll to work off dinner.

"See, her boyfriend almost die's, and she doesn't hold it against him…SMACK" Barnette smacked him upside the head.

"What's a Boyfriend?"

"I'll tell you later."

The end, Ha ha ha!. As Jay Sherman, movie critic would say "It stinks!"


	19. The Next Level

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Unfortunately, out of witty things to say. Chapter 19!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, I am all about Larry over here!

**#19: The Next Level**

It was a week since they had encountered the pirate's from Casire, and everything was as normal as it could be on the 'Nirvana'. Bart had fully recovered, and Duero was nearing a break-through on replicating the Blood growth supplement. Hibiki and Dita were always together, now by Hibiki's choice. Vinn had been becoming more interment, but neither of them new how to make a baby, so nobody was to worried about anything yet. Everybody was happy aboard the ship. The group that could use the Paexis had been working harder than ever, knowing the confrontation that would lead to earth might come any day. They had even been scheduling private lesson with Jack. Well, not everybody, Dita had Hibiki with her, because he didn't really trust Jack. He was always by her side, but Dita was just happy she was finally getting some of the attention she had given him.

"Now when you get as experienced as someone like me, you can destroy thing's much larger than a simple little crate. And you can do it just by thinking it, you don't have to focus so much." Dita was still having trouble shattering the crate, but was improving. This wasn't the time for him to help her individually, he was doing one of his regular lessons with Barnette included. He was proud at how much they had all improved, and even the newer one's like John and Barnette were managing to keep up with the others. He used the private sessions to go over the stuff they weren't involved with before, so that he didn't have to slow down the others. "Controlling the flow of the energy is critical to allowing you to harness the energy and make it do what you want." Today they were going to be sparring with one another, except Jack, because he was the odd man out. Jura was facing off with Meia, John with Hibiki, and Dita with Barnette. He chose these groups so that they wouldn't hold back, and their full battle potential would be released. They where battling ferociously with one another, and even Dita was doing well. "Hibiki, clam down, and focus on connecting the blows, not just throwing as many out as possible." He turned and addressed the whole of the room. "Winning a battle isn't always about just putting out the most attacks, technique is often more important than anything."

After several hours of working with the group, and than with individuals, it was finally time to go to dinner. He sat at a table with Barnette, who was waiting for him, with John and Meia, and Jura and Vinn. Vinn was feeling a bit left out, but Jura had always found a way to make it up.

"are you still sulking because your not able to join in our group?" Jack said, lifting a fork full of food to his mouth, but then lowering it again. "Well cheer up, looks like your about get your chance." Everyone turned and looked out the windows as the alarm started blaring, a massive capital ship advancing at them, flanked by a dozen flagships, and thousands of smaller attack craft.

"Well, looks like their sick of losing, all pilots launch and engage!" The captain called over the intercom, and everyone dashed to their jobs.

"The four of us will hit the Capitol ship, the rest of you focus on the smaller ships, so that Bart can concentrate on the flag ships." Meia gave her briefing from the Super Vandread. A quartet of thick colored energy beams flashed over head, and impacted the flagships, gutting them as explosions chained through them, and the detonated, taking out the smaller surrounding ships. They all flew off and began trading and dodging fire with the enemy. The main force was destroyed within a matter of minutes, and that left the capitol ship. Jack, John, and the Members of the Super Vandread boarded the massive ship. They all jumped out of their respective craft, and static blasted over their handheld COM units, and the captain's voice broke through.

"We have additional enemy contacts inbound. At least 30 flag ships, and a hell of allot more smaller craft, get rid of that thing ASAP." Another voice entered in the background.

"More contacts inbound, picking up another capitol ship, and anther dozen flagships." The pressed on inside, until they found a man seated in the driver's seat.

"You are the ones we are here to defeat! And you come to me!" His eyes flashed, and they were all thrown back against the wall. He was the yellow controller, and spoke through their minds like the red controller had. The Controller rose from his chair and floated toward the five people on the floor, and didn't notice that Jack wasn't there. "You have caused us on Earth a great deal of trouble! You giving all the pathetic humans a false hope, telling them that they exist as something other than a means for the Earth to continue it's survival!" His hair fluttered up as he fired another mental wave at the group, but nothing happened. He tried again and again, but to no effect. Dita was the first to act, not wondering why nothing was happening. She swung a fist and connected with the side of his head, a blue explosion threw him against the wall. She jumped on top of him, and kept up a steady barrage of blows to the head and chest.

"Stop hurting my friends!" She yelled, blue explosions detonating with every blow, her voice filled with an anger they had never heard from her. Jack pulled her of the motionless form, still kicking futilely.

"I'm glad to see that you can use the explosive punch, but I think he's dead! I guess he isn't going to tell us where earth is." The man lying against the wall didn't look remotely human anymore, most of his skin burned off, and his face horribly mangled.

"Here, John, take this back to the 'Nirvana', and help Parfait install it into the system, it should help them with the flagships, the rest of us will handle the other capitol ship!" He through the Basketball sized yellow orb to John and the all ran back and got into their ships. They flew in, and handled the orange ship much the same way as the yellow one. Everyone was surprised by Dita's outburst, and she killed the orange controller.

"Why was it that the first attack hurt us, but the one's after didn't?" Meia asked.

"Because, I went over, explained to the Paexis what was going on, and they gave me their powers, which I used to surround you in a barrier to negate the energy he used. So go get out, I'll rig these ships to blow, and meet you back in the ship. Tell the captain to fly behind the biggest thing they can, cause the double explosion is going to be a big one, it should handle most of the other ships in the sector." He handed Meia the orange Paexis, and hooked himself up to the main system with his chains. He set the self-destruct sequence for fifteen minutes, and by the time he left the second ship, 7 minutes were left until the big explosion. He spotted the markers left by the 'Nirvana, and followed them to behind a moon sized chunk of asteroid. He docked just as the ships detonated at the same time, with such force, the moon shattered into dust, and the reinforced shields dropped down to a single layer. Considering it had been at 7 layers, they were extremely lucky. There wasn't anything left of the enemy fleet, not even scattered wreckage. Jack walked onto the bridge, to report to the captain.

"Well, we now have all of the Paexis in our arsenal." He held his hands out, palm up, and three orbs of energy floated above each hand, one side purple, blue and green, the other red, orange, and yellow.

"Man, if I hadn't been jettisoned off of Pluto, I would have missed all of this excitement!" Misty chimed in from her bridge station.

"You came from Pluto! Do you know where it is!" Jack said excitedly, the energy orbs vanishing from his hands.

"No, but it should be in the information from that capsule that came with me."

"Why?" B.C. asked while pulling it up on the main screen.

"Because, Pluto is in the Sol system." Jack said.

"What's the Sol system?"

"It's the system that contains Earth." B.C. looked through the data and after bringing up the stars visible in the picture of Pluto, and a bit of comparisons, determined its location.

"We can be there in 2 months"

"Well, then I believe we should go and say hello to our good friend." The captain said, and then yelled to Bart. "Set a course for these coordinates."

"Well, I've got to go work on improving my skills, and the skills of the others. See you later." Jack said, and walked off the bridge. The door hissed shut, and he started talking to himself. "Now I have the powers of all the Paexises, and I am going to put them to work. When I am done, Earth won't be the only one to fall to my might."

"Oh really?" Barnette said, with raised eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

"It just mean's that we are going to decimate the earth, and free the galaxy from _their _rule of terror." He put emphasis on the word their, but Barnette didn't notice as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "What do you say we go and get assume dinner now?" They grabbed a table alone, so that they wouldn't interrupt anyone else's celebrating. They ate and drank, and just plain relaxed.

"There's just one thing I don't get." Barnette said, slightly pink from drinking. "How is it we beat them so easily?" She giggled at herself.

"Well, you see, they are just machine's, and once they reach their programming limit they just can't get any better, but we, being organic, can keep improving until we die!" They both bust out laughing at this, and didn't stop for some time. Barnette took another swig of here drink, hiccuped once, and passed out, her head falling to the table with a thunk. Jack chuckled, stood, and hefted her over his shoulder. He walked back to her room, and put her into bed. He walked out, only to come face to face with John and Vinn.

"Well, what do we have here?" Vinn slurred, he was partially drunk.

"What do you think?" Jack asked, suggestion laced in his voice.

"She passed out too? Meia made it to two, and was out. Jura took quite a few before she dropped. What about Barnette?" John said, eyeing Vinn as he sneezed and swayed.

"I'm guessing that Vinn tried too keep up?" Jack asked, also looking at him curiously. John nodded. "Barnette downed a few, and then just went out like clicking of a light. Man, I love her." Jack shook his head with a smile, as the three of walked back in and sat at a table together. Vinn grabbed the closest bottle and downed it, and nodded off sitting up. "I guess women just can't hold their liquor like men can."

"I don't know, I saw a few of them drink quite a few."

"Yeah, your right, hehe, I bet Gasco could drink even you under."

The end of chapter 19! What will come next? Only one or two chapters left, and then what? Am I talking to myself again? You bet!


	20. Deaths Doorstep

Vandread, The Next Experiment 

Finally, Chapter 20!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, the devil grin's from ear to ear when he sees the hand he dealt us.

**#20: Death's Doorstep**

The 'Nirvana' drifted into orbit around a blue planet in the sol system.

"Something's not right, this is Neptune, Pluto should right over there, where that dust cloud is…" Jack said, realizing what must have happened. Earth must have gotten wise to the people hiding on Pluto, and taken care of it.

"You mean they destroyed a whole planet?" B.C. queried, shock in her voice.

Yes, are you surprised? The people of earth will destroy any opposition to their goals. Even if it means destroying an entire planet." He answered, not looking away.

"Well, then we best get ready, we will be reaching earth by tomorrow!" The captain said, addressing everyone.

The ship was non-stop movement until late that night, everyone preparing their stuff for what would either be the ultimate victory, or a spectacular defeat. Jack set up one final lesson with the group of new controllers, to hone up on their skills, with the exception of Parfait, who had other matters to attend to. Most likely Duero related matters. There was an air of finality to the coming fight that had more than a few people on edge. They went from focusing energy to lifting things with the energy, to making flames erupt and consume objects, to sparring, Jura against Jack, Hibiki against Vinn, John against Dita, and Barnette against Meia. They all were working hard, until, one by one, they all stopped and watched Barnette and Meia. They were trading blows such ferocity that the others backed up, for fear of a stray shot hitting them. It went on for several minutes, until Barnette was knocked on her ass. She sat there panting, and they though it was over, but then Barnette flew back and resumed the match. They called it a day when both the girls where so exhausted they couldn't lift their arms to keep at it.

"What was that about?" Jack and John asked, as they walked out of the room. It was after dinner, and they needed to get sleep before the next day dawned.

"I don't know, I just went for it." Barnette said, looking at the floor.

"I Just let go, and let my body go on it's own." Meia said, also looking at the floor.

"It's cool, isn't it? You can read the other person, and counter, then strike, and if they're reading you, they can do the same, and it's a stalemate, until someone misses a beat, and winds up on their ass." Jack said, smirking at Barnette. She raised her arm to smack him, but found she was to tired, and just shrugged.

Dawn broke just as the 'Nirvana' reached an asteroid belt, separating a large orange planet with a red spot, and a smaller red planet. They plowed into it, rocks bouncing off the shields, and spiraled out into space.

"We will be entering the space around earth in little over two hours! Make ready to launch, and remain on standby!" The captain said, and everyone got busy. They stuck near the red planet, Mars, and started scanning the planet Earth. The scan finished, and the results came up on the main view screen. The giant machinery clogged out most of the view of the inner atmosphere of the planet, which was a brownish yellow color. The atmosphere was breathable, and that was better than nothing. A spot on one of the long bands of metal stretching across the planet flashed. A zoomed in view showed a large structure.

"I'd say that's where we need to go. If we launch the controllers into their, they should be able to neutralize it in a surprise attack." B.C. said.

"I don't think that is going to happen." Ezra said, and shifted the view to the space around the planet. There were easily millions of ships there. Millions upon millions, the largest force they had ever seen. A flagship numbered in the ten's of thousands alone. The Earth knew they were coming, and they were ready for them.

"Here's the plan, we are going to fight off the space forces, while the controllers will be launched onto the machines of the planet, to try and take out the thing that makes the machines work. Everyone to launch in five minutes." The captain finished addressing the crew, and switched over to address Bart. "I want you to fire everything we've got, to clear a hole through so that the Infiltration team can get there quickly."

"Aye, Captain."

The 'Nirvana' came out from behind the planet mars, and move toward Earth. The enemy ships moved forward toward it. Bart unleashed a scatter blast, with the power of all six of the Paexises at once. The web of rainbow colored energy beams lanced forward, shattering anything in its path. When the light faded, Bart marveled at the complete and utter destruction that he had unleashed, almost scared at the damage inflicted. He had created a gaping hole over 30 miles wide in the enemy's defensive perimeter. The Dreads and Vanguards of the Infiltration team flew in as the enemy regrouped, and he launched another scatter blast.

The four Vanguards and four Dreads touched lightly on the metal floor outside of a large, spiky, castle like structure. They all hopped out of their ships, checked their weapons, and marched in the big doors in the front of the structure. They were in a well-carpeted room, with several door branching off.

"Everybody take a different door, and call in if you find anything." Meia said, and chose a door. The others did the same, and they were all about to open them, one the large doors opposite the entrance opened, and a small man stepped through. They all stared, and all the other doors opened, and more peoples walked in. They grabbed the group, and dragged them off in the same direction. After several minutes, they were all dropped in a large room, with a quartet of fancy thrones. The Earthlings filled out of the room, leaving the Infiltration team staring at the four men seated in the throne. When they spoke, it was in the same inside the head speech as the other Earthlings from the Capitol ships.

"Jack, you have made your way back, just as all the controllers do in their time, but much earlier than we expected. Have you come to join our fleet now? How is the Good General?" The lead man said to Jack, not making any indication that he had noticed the others.

"No, I'm not here to join you, and the General is dead." Jack answered, as if he wasn't paying to much attention.

"Dead? But how, did you kill him?" The man asked, astonishment touching his voice.

"Me? No, he was kicking my ass. My pretty little friend took him down without even putting out any effort." Jack said, gesturing to Barnette. The man then chose to notice the rest of the group.

"He was killed by a mere human?" Barnette's face turned red, but Jack answered.

"Yep, and she wasn't even paying much attention, just a single shot, and he was down." Jack said, pride in his voice.

"Well, such deaths are unavoidable, we will simply recover the Green Paexis, and make a new controller." The man said with a sigh.

"What do you mean? I already made a new green controller, and your looking at her."

"What! You can create new controllers!" The man said in surprise.

"You bet, and you're looking at all but the orange one."

"But there are seven others here, not four. You have all of the Paexises?"

"Oh, well, the blue decide to make four controllers, and yeah, we have all six of the Paexises. Plus, they have all given me their powers." Jack raised his arms, and all of the doors slammed shut and locked. Worry crossed the four men's faces.

"One man should never have all of the Paexis energy flowing through them. No one should have that much power, their would be nothing that could stop them, the would rule…" Another man spoke, but was stopped as he was ripped to shreds by invisible powers, and then burst into a rainbow of flames, so that nothing was left. The other men ran to a door.

"Open fire!" Meia yelled, and they managed to stop another man before they got the door open, and ran out of the room. Earthlings poured in from all sides, and were cut down by the weapon's fire quickly. Some turned and ran, and disappeared through other door. The Infiltration team took the same door as the two Earth leaders, and found themselves in a room filled with an array of computers and view screens.

"I got this!" Jack said, walking over to a computer and typing quickly, the metal of his glove clicking on the metal of they keys. After about a minute, he clapped his hands, and smiled. "Look at my handy work!" The screens all showed views of the robots in space, all exploding in puffs of flame. "I triggered their self-destruct programs, as well as the factory's on the surface." The views shifted to the surface, as mushroom clouds erupted all over it. He clicked a few more keys, and the Captain's astonished face appeared. "Mission complete, captain." Jack said, giving a salute. She blinked at him for a few seconds.

"Oh… good job, return to the 'Nirvana' so we can leave this place." All of the group stated to leave, but suddenly stopped, as Jack spoke.

"No, I can't, My place is here."

"WHAT?" Everyone yelled.

"This planet, is my home Planet, they need someone new to lead them, someone who won't harvest organs from others to propagate our people. With the cloning and medical equipment from Tarrak and Majale, I can give these people real hope. After I kill the two remaining High Counselors, I will take over, and rule this planet." Everyone starred at him, because of the resolution in his voice.

"But you are a part of my crew now." The captain said, determinedly.

"Yes, that is why I want you all to stay here with me." He replied but knew, no matter the augment, they would not remain with him.

"We cannot abandon our fellows at the asteroid base."

"We could tow it Back to the asteroid belt in this system."

"No, I'm sorry, but we cannot stay. If you really want to, you may, but the rest of us must go." She said, knowing what was traveling through the boy's mind.

"I know, and I will stay, I wish you luck in your travels." He sighed, and shut off the link. He turned to talk to his companions, but found only John, Meia, Vinn, and Jura still their. Hibiki, Dita, and Barnette were gone. He said his good-byes, and watched their ships depart, back to the 'Nirvana'.

Jack looked up at a view screen, holding the two broken corpses of the High Counselors, watching the 'Nirvana' as it speed of into the distance. It was his, the whole planet, his home… no, his only true home was now disappearing into the black of space, along with the people that had made him enjoy life, and the only thing that had ever been a source of happiness in his life. He burned the corpses, and walked into the throne room. With a wave of his hands, the four thrones fell to pieces. He waved his hands around, and the pieces rebuilt themselves into a single throne, tall spikes extruding from all around it. He walked back into the massive computer room, and released the four orbs of energy into the room. The green, purple, orange, and yellow Paexises latched in, and made themselves at home. They glowed happily at their surroundings, glad to be together. Jack was about to leave the room, when he saw a small piece of Paper. He picked it up, and tears welled in his eyes at the sight.

THE END of the story, hope you liked it, sorry if you didn't. might write a sequel, but who knows, school starts tomorrow, so it might be a while before I can write anything else.


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